Almost one in every five suicides in the world is committed by self-poisoning with pesticide, which mostly occur in rural, agricultural areas of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), states a new publication entitled 'Preventing Suicide: A resource for pesticide registrars and regulators'. Published jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the booklet says that the adoption of green revolution technology...

-The Hindu Business Line Write to Commerce Minister demanding negotiations be put on hold till they are consulted New Delhi: A number of farmer organisations, trade unions, livestock and fisheries groups and civil society bodies have written an open letter to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal stating that most of them had not been consulted on the on-going negotiations for the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact and expressed concerns that their...

-The Telegraph Labour minister Santosh Gangwar said that Rs 178 would be the minimum wage New Delhi: An existing tripartite advisory committee of employers, employees’ unions and state government officials will determine a national-level minimum wage that will be binding on all states after the passage of a draft law, the Centre said on Wednesday. Labour minister Santosh Gangwar had last week said that the government would table a Code on Wages Bill...

-The Telegraph The commerce ministry has also formed a committee to address the concerns of stakeholders on the draft e-commerce policy The government plans to come out with a draft national retail policy in the next 10 days amid strong opposition among small traders over the rapid expansion of online retail, led by multinationals, even as they grapple with the computerisation of their operations. The commerce ministry has also formed a committee to...

-The Hindu India is trying to rally the support of other developing countries in the World Trade Organisation to reform the “biased” system of assessing a country’s services trade policies, according to an official closely associated with the development. The existing system, developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has significant quantitative and qualitative flaws, said Manoj Pant, Director of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and author of...