-The Hindu   The NDA's first budget has thrown a few sops in the direction of the environment and the millions dependent on it. But much like its predecessors, in painting the big picture it remains embarrassingly devoid of innovative ideas on how to move India towards ecological sustainability and justice "While 2015 will be a landmark year for sustainable development and climate change policy, 2014 is the last chance for all stakeholders...

-Down to Earth Blog The performance of nutrition indicators amongst Dalits is improving, it is nowhere near the catch-up pace Does a new government and a strong Prime Minister claiming to hail from the backward caste augur Achche Din for Dalits too? We hope so! But political commitment-or lack of it-has multiple manifestations. In a deeply stratified society like India with entrenched elitism, people from the Scheduled Caste (referred to as Dalits...

-Down to Earth Targeted efforts to make food systems more efficient can also reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture Basic calorie need of 3 billion extra people can be met if food systems are made more efficient through targeted efforts, suggests a new report. What's more, the targeted efforts will also help reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture. The report by researchers from the University of Minnesota, and published in the peer reviewed...

-Outlook Over 20 per cent of food items served in Restaurants and fast food outlets across the country have been found to be substandard or adulterated, according to government data. Out of 46,283 food samples including milk, milk products, edible vegetable oil and spices tested at various government laboratories during 2013-14, as many as 9,265 samples were found to be adulterated and misbranded. Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of such cases in...

-New York Times News Service SHEOHAR (Bihar): He wore thick black eyeliner to ward off the evil eye, but Vivek, a tiny 1-year-old living in a village of mud huts and diminutive people, had nonetheless fallen victim to India's great scourge of malnutrition. His parents seemed to be doing all the right things. His mother still breast-fed him. His family had six goats, access to fresh buffalo milk and a hut filled...