-The Times of India   CHENNAI: NGOs across the country are feeling the heat with an Intelligence Bureau report accusing many of them, including one run by Tamil Nadu-based anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, of receiving foreign aid to instigate agitations and stall developmental projects in the country. For many years now, TN has been recording the second highest foreign aid receipts by NGOs, next only to Delhi. According to the Union home...

-FAO FAO publishes first global study of forest genetic resources Rome - FAO today urged countries to improve data gathering and research to promote the conservation and sustainable management of the world's forest genetic resources, which are coming under increasing pressure. According to the first-ever edition of The State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources report, half of the forest species reported as regularly utilized by countries are threatened by the conversion of...

-WHO, UNFPA, International Confederation of Midwives   PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - A report released today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund together with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), WHO and partners reveals that major deficits in the midwifery workforce occur in 73 countries where these services are most desperately needed. The report recommends new strategies to address these deficits and save millions of lives of women and newborns. The 73 African,...

-The United Nations   In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, more than 70 per cent of the world population is without proper social protections, the United Nations labour agency today reported, urging governments to scale up investment in child and family benefits, pensions and other public expenditures. "The global community agreed in 1948 that social security and health care for children, working age people who face unemployment or injury and older...

-The Diplomat   Climate change is stressing an already struggling farm sector, but there is a way forward. Over the last decade, India's official position in global climate negotiations has been one of opposition to agricultural mitigation. At Doha (COP18), India joined other developing countries in demanding that any talk about agriculture must be in the realm of adaptation, not mitigation. India considers the farm sector out of bounds with respect to emissions...