-The Telegraph Cyclone Hudhud, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam around 11.30am on Sunday and unleashed massive rain and gale that left behind a trail of destruction, might prove beneficial for Jharkhand's rabi crops. According to Met officials, the cyclone, which crossed Andhra coast with wind speed of 195-200kmph this afternoon, is likely to trigger heavy rain in some parts of Jharkhand on Monday and Tuesday. Even though farmers are bracing for...

-United Nations The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today kicked-off a two-day meeting focusing on civil society's role in giving a voice to the hungry and how best to improve a multi-stakeholder approach to food security and nutrition policy development at national, regional and global levels. "Reaching consensus is important because it will make us move faster and because we need results in the short term," said Graziano da Silva,...

-Down to Earth Close to 20 million people displaced or affected Since October 2013, when Phailin hit Odisha's coast, India has witnessed a series of extreme weather events like cyclonic storms, cloudbursts, floods, droughts and hailstorms. These events not only destroyed lives and livelihood of people, but also caused a huge economic loss to the state and national economies. In the period between October 2013 and October 2014, floods in three states-Odisha, Assam...

-The Hindu Business Line Will seek removal of restrictions in ‘peace clause' India has decided to strike a harder bargain on food security at the World Trade Organisation than it did in July. It wants restrictive conditions attached to the use of the peace clause dropped. New Delhi, which had wanted the ‘peace clause' offering protection against retaliatory action for breaching farm subsidy caps extended indefinitely in return for support to the trade...

-Down to Earth Ministry of rural development will channelise MPs' funds through different schemes for Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to restructure the existing Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme in a holistic way. He launched the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) on Saturday, under which2,379 model villages will be developed across the country in the next five years. There are 793 Members of Parliament...