In an effort to help prevent dangerous contamination of food with melamine, a toxic chemical, the United Nations food standards body today set new limits for the amount of the substance that can be present in baby formula, other foods and animal feed without causing health problems. The maximum melamine allowed in baby formula was set at one milligram (mg) per kilogramme (kg) and 2.5 mg/kg in other foods and...

Weather scientists today pinned their hopes for a surge in the monsoon’s advance over central and northern India on a feeble low pressure system over the northwestern Bay of Bengal and on statistics. India has received 16 per cent rainfall, which is below normal during the first month of the season, and 31 of the country’s 81 water reservoirs are filled to less than 50 per cent of the normal capacity. But...

India has been lauded for its remarkable overall economic growth of over 8% over the last five years. But despite this high and relatively stable growth, India's underbelly is soft. The agriculture sector is performing below expectations, with growth rate of around 2.8%, it is way below the Eleventh Plan target of 4%. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimates that 22% of India's population is undernourished. Child malnutrition is...

At a time the country is facing high food inflation, its bread basket is sitting on colossal wheat stocks. The stocks, to the tune of 12 million tonnes, lying in godowns and open spaces in Punjab are giving sleepless nights to the Food Corporation of India (FCI). About 800,000 tonnes wheat moves out of Punjab in a month. Based on these figures, the state can clear about five million tonnes wheat...

The steady progress of the monsoons ought to refocus policy attention on India's deeply stressed water economy . There are fast rising demands on water resources generally, together with poorly governed supply systems, with the result that overall balances are precarious. What is worse, there's increasingly reckless mining of groundwater, and aquifer depletion is concentrated in many of the most populated and economically significant areas. Now, we have a highly...