Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is often in the news for wrong reasons. But when he says that India’s major problems are Naxalism and malnutrition, we need to sit up and listen. It was on January 10, 2012, that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called hunger and malnutrition a national shame while releasing the Naandi Foundation’s Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) Survey Report 2011. It was a high-profile occasion, given that the multi-party...

Soon Indian consumers will have the opportunity to know whether the packaged food that they are buying contains genetically modified organisms. But will that help? In India, where a majority of food is unprocessed and non-packaged, labeling on packaged food may hardly cover the huge populations' right to choose. A gazette notification issued by the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution early this month says that every food package...

-The Guardian  The counter conference is designed to foster alternative ideas and provide an outlet for discontent They come with speeches, placards, power point presentations and drums. Some with body paint and bows and arrows. Others with suits and business plans. Almost all driven by a desire for radical change. "Come re-invent the world" is the call to the People's summit, which has opened in Rio de Janeiro to counter what many participants...

-The Christian Sciences Monitor Wealthy Western nations are financially exhausted and unwilling to commit to help fund greener development for poorer nations. Will this week's conference in Rio find any solutions? So what happens if you hold a UN conference on sustainable development, and world leaders make speeches, and sign treaties, and then nothing happens? This, of course, would be absurd. The problem, says Bill Easterly, a development expert at New York University,...

-The United Nations World leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other groups will come together in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to take part in the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) later this month. The Conference seeks to shape how countries and their citizens can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection to achieve long-term growth. Seven key areas have been identified...