Homoeopathic medicine Belladonna is effective in preventing Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a recent study conducted by the Kolkata-based School of Tropical Medicine has shown. Belladonna is derived from a plant A. belladonna which is also source of the drug atropine. Conducted in collaboration with the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH) under the Department of AYUSH, researchers claim to have found a probable role for Belladonna in preventing JE virus infection. The...

In the wake of runaway inflation and the ensuing food crisis, the prime minister constituted three high-powered committees of chief ministers and central ministers to recommend ways of containing inflation, improving PDS and boosting agricultural production. The Working Group on agricultural production was chaired by Haryana chief minister B S Hooda, with CMs of West Bengal, Punjab and Bihar as members. Tucked away, largely unnoticed by the Indian media, as...

The recent spike in world food prices has further widened the gap between the developed and the developing economies. While, over 70 per cent of the world's population resides in poor countries, it has access to less than 40 per cent of the world's resources such as water, irrigated land, power, etc. This is a result of inconsistent economic progress (post-colonialisation birth pangs), rampant population growth and distractions such as...

India’s annual monsoon rains should revive in two days after a 10-day lull, the weather office said on Monday, raising hopes for a pick-up in soybean planting in the world’s biggest edible oils buyer. The June-September rainfall, which irrigates 60% of the country’s farms and drives rural incomes, is vital for the trillion-dollar economy. A healthy rainfall despite the slow progress could help Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tame high double-digit food...

Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative illicit businesses in Europe, according to a United Nations report launched today at an event where Spain became the first country on the continent to join the UN Blue Heart Campaign against trafficking in people. The report Trafficking in persons to Europe for sexual exploitation, issued by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that criminal groups make around $3 billion per...