-The Business Standard Cabinet secretary asks WTO to not put issue on backburner but address it up front Laying down India's stand on World Trade Organisation negotiations, cabinet secretary Ajit Seth on Thursday said the country's food security concerns cannot be relegated to the back-burner, but should be addressed up front. "Addressing the food security concerns is important, as India still has 190 million hungry people," Seth said at an event organised...

-Outlook AP Initiates Economic Empowerment of Women Through Sand Mining Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government has launched an initiative of entrusting sand mining to women self-help groups, which is essentially expected to curb the thriving sand mafia. The move will ensure economic empowerment of women as part of the government's 'Pedarikam pai gelupu' (victory over poverty) drive and make sand available at a reasonable price to customers. The income generated from sand mining and...

-The Business Standard The NDA is looking to reduce fiscal deficit not by chopping social sector spending but by paring it down Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is fairly confident the government will meet this year's fiscal deficit target. At 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product the deficit looked looked like a bit of stretch in July but the food subsidy, for one, is not going to balloon as in previous years. The...

-Outlook Geneva: With India sticking to its tough stand, efforts to break the impasse in the WTO on trade facilitation agreement and food security issues today proved futile and further consultations will continue over the week. The General Council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which met after a gap of over two months, could not make much headway. "I will be holding a series of meetings in a range of different configurations....

-The Business Standard In July, India had clarified it wouldn't ratify a trade facilitation agreement until a permanent solution on food security was arrived at A day before the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s trade negotiations committee meets in Geneva, India on Wednesday said during the negotiations, it would stick to its stand on food security. Speaking to reporters here, Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Our position remains intact...we will underline the...