Biodiversity drives sustainable and climate-resilient farming and the biotechnology industry. Everything should be done to spread bio-literacy for an era of bio-happiness in rural and urban India through the conversion of bio-resources into jobs and income.  Biodiversity provides building blocks for sustainable food, health and livelihood security systems. It is the feedstock for the biotechnology industry and a climate-resilient farming system. Given its importance, a Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)...

In the cotton fields of Vidarbha in central India, grief is a constant companion. Wherever you turn, there are heart-breaking stories of suicide. In the village of Mangi, friends and family are preparing the body of Laxman Tekam for burial. Women are wailing and men have tears streaming down their cheeks. Laxman was a cotton farmer who hanged himself from the roof beam of his small house after his debts...

Two Indian air force Antonov transport aircraft arrive at Imphal airport. They are among several emergency missions carrying desperately needed supplies of food and medicines. For the past five weeks, two key highways linking this remote state in north-east India to the rest of the country have been blocked by supporters of an influential separatist leader from neighbouring Nagaland. Thuingaleng Muivah, who heads the NSCN (IM), a Naga group that carried...

The Institute for Human Development (IHD) & UN World Food Programme (WFP) have jointly prepared a `Food Security Atlas of Rural Bihar'. The first-ever atlas, prepared under the guidance of a Technical Advisory Committee chaired by Planning Commission member Prof Abhijit Sen, has analysed and depicted the Food Security situation in various districts of the state. It has identified regions in the state that require priority attention for improving food...

UPA-II leadership is seen struggling with both food act and the achievement of its ministers. Numbers don’t add up Political leadership of the Congress party will take a final call on the number of people eligible to receive subsidised food-grain under the proposed national Food Security law. While a preliminary report of the Suresh Tendulkar Committee puts the number at 372 million, the government’s official estimates say it is only...