-The United Nations   Indigenous foods which have been neglected by the food industry and urban consumers can be an important tool to alleviate hunger and malnutrition, a United Nations official said today. “The focus of research and crop improvement on a few widely consumed crops has helped meet the food needs of the rapidly growing world population, but it has narrowed dramatically the number of species upon which global food security and...

-The United Nations The number of displaced persons worldwide will significantly grow over the next ten years due to factors such as conflict, natural disasters and climate change, according to the flagship publication of the United Nations refugee agency, launched today, which stresses that international solidarity is needed to address the issue. “The world is creating displacement faster than it is producing solutions, and this means one thing only: More people trapped...

The Conflict of Interest Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a welcome step to control the grey areas in which “public private partnerships” are conducted. AMONG the many things that have proliferated in the economic boom of the brash new India is conflict of interest. So widespread, comprehensive and many-tentacled has this feature become that it is often no longer even recognised to exist, much less to be a...

-PTI No impact in Kerala, lukewarm response to the stir in Tamil Nadu The nationwide bandh called by the NDA and Left parties to protest the petrol price hike today evoked a mixed response amid incidents of stone pelting, arson and road blockades in Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal. In the national capital, the bandh did not evoke much response though party supporters blocked traffic in some places. Small shops were seen open...

-The United Nations Sustainable development will not be achieved unless hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, the United Nations food agency warned today in a new report. “We cannot call development sustainable while this situation persists, while nearly one out of every seven men, women and children are left behind, victims of undernourishment,” said the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, in a news release. In the report...