-The United Nations About 70 per cent of new diseases infecting humans in recent decades have come from animals, the United Nations food agency today reported, warning that it is getting easier for diseases jump species and spread as the population, agriculture and food-supply chains grow. The ongoing expansion of agricultural lands into wild areas, coupled with a worldwide boom in livestock production, means that "livestock and wildlife are more in contact...

-Live Mint By giving in to pressure from the US and EU, India has landed itself and the developing world in a bad trade deal The stenographic cacophony in the Indian media had a singular triumphalist message from the ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meet in Bali: India had secured a major victory by safeguarding its food security programme and stood its ground against the US and the European Union...

-The Business Standard Policymaking in India is more often than not credited for its high nuisance value, rather than for positively aiding growth. Whether oil & gas, power, mining or any other core sector of the economy, government policy has frequently hampered rather than assisted the positive development of these industries. There is however one segment of the renewable energy space - solar power, that's vastly benefitted from concerted government action...

-The United Nations More women are being diagnosed with and dying from breast cancer, the specialized cancer agency of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today reported, calling for greater attention to prevention and control measures to offset lifestyle changes which pushed breast cancer to be the leading cause of cancer death among women. Global cancer rates jumped to more than 14 million last year, with some 1.7 million women diagnosed...

-Down to Earth The free medicine scheme in Rajasthan may benefit Congress Of the many poll sops that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot doled out in the past two years, the one scheme that seems to have struck the right chord with voters is the initiative to give free essential medicines at government healthcare facilities. The Mukhyamantri Nishulk Dava Yojna, launched in 2011, has offered some hope to the incumbent Congress government,...