-The United Nations   Food prices dropped to an 11-month low in October, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today, while adding that they are still higher than last year and very volatile.   FAO’s Food Price Index averaged 216 points last month, down 4 per cent from September, the agency said in a news release. The index is a measure of basic food prices at the global level. “The drop was...

Coming months ‘crucial' The International Labour Organisation has warned that a jobs crisis caused by the slowdown in the global economy threatens a wave of widespread social unrest engulfing both rich and poor countries. Highlighting the darkening prospects for employment, the Geneva-based ILO said policymakers were running out of time to head off a double-dip recession in labour markets. “We have reached the moment of truth,” said Raymond Torres, director of the...

Preparing to fulfil one of the main demands of Anna Hazare, the UPA government is in the process of finalising the draft legislation for the Citizens Charter whereby every citizen will have the right to time-bound delivery of goods and services. Titled Citizens Charter for Committed Supply of Goods and Provision of Services by Public Authorities Bill, 2011, the draft legislation provides for multi-layered grievance redressal mechanism from panchayat to national...

The nettled issue of whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is a public authority or not hangs in balance, with the Central Information Commission mulling the option of referring the case to a larger bench. At the first hearing of the transparency panel in the presence of TV cameras, Information Commissioner M L Sharma indicated that the matter may be decided by a larger bench. The...

Some of the recent cases in the higher courts bring into sharp focus the dilemmas on the death penalty. ON October 10, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad stayed the execution of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving assailant in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack, by admitting his appeal against the death sentence awarded to him by the Bombay High Court. The Bench wondered whether Kasab deserved...