-The United Nations Although global food prices have recently stabilized, they are expected to remain volatile over the next few years, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today, as a ministerial meeting on global food prices kicked off in Rome. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva told the meeting, which coincided with the opening of the Committee on World Food Security, that this year's session was...

-Outlook Bhubaneswar: Rejecting a UN panel recommendation for halting POSCO's port-to-steel plant project, both the Republic of Korea and the Odisha government today exuded optimism to go for the ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed facility near Paradip early next year. "We are happy that the state government has acquired the Land required for POSCO project. I hope everything will be ready and the POSCO project work will start soon," Korean ambassador Joon-gyu...

-PTI NEW DELHI: India's retirement savings and income system index has improved over the last year and the performance is likely to improve significantly as pension coverage of the unorganised sector increases, says a report. According to the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index, India's overall value increased from 42.4 in 2012 to 43.3 in 2013, out of 100. Of the 20 nations on the list, India is ranked at the 19th position. However,...

-Outlook Bhubaneshwar: With the outlawed CPI (Maoist) targeting tribal youths living in dense forests and hills, Odisha government has asked departments to work out an integrated development plan for bridging critical gaps in infrastructure development and livelihood promotion of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG). The PVTGs which have been the target of Maoists included Boihor, Mankidia, hill Khadia, Juanga, Lodha and Paudibhuyan, Soura, Kutia Kondha, Dongaria Kondha, Lanjia Soura, Bonda, Diyadi and...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The sight of voluntary organizations generously helping villagers in the wake of the Uttarakhand tragedy was heart warming. But, its flip side has the state government concerned. The NGO dole given to villages has caused heartburn among other hamlets where these voluntary organizations did not reach, largely because the relief by non-state bodies is lavish when compared to the structured help provided by the government. Such...