-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Several states want the Centre to foot the bill for all associated expenses such as transportation and commission to ration shops under the Food Security Act when it takes the credit for the scheme. Almost all states including Congress-ruled ones asked the Centre to bear these expenses which is estimated to be around Rs 10,000 crore annually. While most states represented by food ministers on Tuesday...

-The United Nations Wider use of available best practices and technologies could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector by as much as 30 per cent, according to a new study released today by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The report, "Tackling climate change through livestock: A global assessment of emissions and mitigation opportunities," represents the most comprehensive estimate to date of livestock's contribution to global warming,...

-The Hindu The huge deficit in blood availability outside urban centres must jolt the government into legalising unbanked blood supply Twenty-year-old Putul, living in a village 70 km from a district headquarters town in Chhattisgarh, had been in labour for two days and a night. It was her first pregnancy. In order to hasten labour, the local quack administered several injections that increased her uterine contractions. Forty hours after the onset of...

-The Hindu It is the only sector that can create jobs and prevent the economic crisis from deepening In the last two decades, the Indian economy has witnessed a transformational change to emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Economic reforms unveiled in 1991 have brought about a structural shift enabling the private sector to assume a much larger role in the economy. GDP growth has largely been...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government, which had suspended mining of rare earth minerals like garnet, ilmenite and rutile along the Tuticorin coast last month following complaints of large-scale illegal mining, on Tuesday extended the ban to Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Trichy and Madurai districts. Chief minister J Jayalalithaa, in a statement, said a team headed by revenue secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who had conducted an inquiry into violations in mining...