-TheNewsMinute.com 38-year-old Azhar Maqsusi is famous across the city and the country for relentlessly feeding hundreds of people every day. What do you do when you see children begging at a traffic junction in a crowded city? What would happen if you give them ‘two rotis’ instead of money? This is exactly what 38-year-old Azhar Maqsusi from Hyderabad has been advocating for the past one year, with his ‘do roti’ (two rotis) campaign....

-TheWire.in In the gender Budget, the Modi government has not done much more than pay lip service to policies that impact women. Soon after the Union Budget was presented, the PMO tweeted Modi as saying: “Special emphasis has been given on women empowerment in the Budget.” A high-voltage communication campaign followed highlighting key proposals for women, including an increase in commitments for the Ujjwala scheme to provide free gas connections to eight crore...

-Down to Earth India requires policy changes to make millets an effective tool against malnutrition Nutrient-rich millets, which have been a crucial part of human diet since ancient times, have lost their importance due to globally commercialised agronomic practices to produce more foodgrains. Though awareness has been growing among the public in the recent years about the health benefits of a millet-based diet—high fibre, low carbohydrate, protein-rich and gluten-free—gaps persist on several...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Farmer and food activists have alleged that genetically modified soya bean seeds are being imported "illegally" for cultivation, in violation of a directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) notification of 2006 that prohibits the import of GMOs without approval from the genetic engineering appraisal committee (GEAC). Some activists have also found imported packaged foods containing GM ingredients being sold in departmental stores, one of which is...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Puducherry administration has approached the Union food ministry to seek a return to the system of distributing subsidised foodgrain, instead of crediting the subsidy to the bank accounts of beneficiaries. The Union territory administration has claimed the beneficiaries are not using the subsidy amount to buy foodgrain. "The chief minister recently put up this proposal before Union minister Ram Vilas paswan. The UT administration...