The Great Debate (India)
From AlertNet: Water scarcity compounds India’s food insecurity
These are the personal views of Siddharth Chatterjee and do not reflect those of his employer, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Follow him on Twitter: @sidchat1
Since India’s independence, the mammoth task of feeding its hundreds of millions, most of whom are extremely poor, has been a major challenge to policymakers. In the coming decades, the issue of food insecurity is likely to affect almost all Indians. However, for the poorest amongst us, it could be catastrophic. India ranks 65 of 79 countries in the Global Hunger Index. This is extremely alarming.
In the past few years, uneven weather patterns combined with over exploited and depleting water resources in various parts of India have wreaked havoc on food security, particularly for small and marginal farmers, as well as the rural poor.
The recently launched Global Food Security Index (GFSI) estimates that in 2012, there are 224 million Indians, around 19 percent of the total population, who are undernourished. The same report also estimates that while the Indian government has various institutions designed to deal with the impact of inflation on food prices, it only spends 1 percent of agricultural GDP on research to build food security for the poorest. Overall, India ranked 66th on the GFSI. It is estimated that one in four of the world’s malnourished children is in India, more even than in sub-Saharan Africa.
Will the Congress bow to Mamata’s demand and roll back economic reforms?
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, the biggest ally in Manmohan Singh’s UPA government, pulled out of the ruling coalition on Tuesday, escalating a political firestorm over big-ticket reform measures launched last week.
Who should be India’s next president?
The political establishment is abuzz about who will be the next Indian president, a largely ceremonial post that comes open in July.
The president is the constitutional head but has limited powers, similar to that of the monarch in the United Kingdom, despite living in a 340-room palace that was once the British viceroy’s residence.
Who do you think is the best choice for India’s next president? Vote in our poll and tell us why in the Comments section.
Congratulate Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar is the first cricketer to score 100 international centuries, reaching the long-awaited milestone during the Asia Cup one-dayer against Bangladesh.
Since his 1989 Karachi debut, what the 38-year-old has accumulated is much more than scoring almost 34,000 international runs from 188 test matches, 462 one-dayers and one T20 international.
Join us in congratulating Sachin Tendulkar.
Dravid retires: End of an era in cricket?
Rahul Dravid has announced his retirement from international cricket.
The 39-year-old is the second highest run scorer in test history and scored 13,288 runs in 164 tests, including 36 hundreds.
Post your wishes for Dravid and share your views on his career.
Who will win in Uttar Pradesh elections?
Exit polls show the Samajwadi Party winning by far the largest number of seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly. This would almost certainly mean a return to power for Mulayam Singh Yadav and the ouster of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati as the chief minister.
Rahul Gandhi had staked his political future on reviving the Congress party in a state where it has not held power for 22 years. But elections have proven notoriously hard to predict in the past, and Congress officials are defiantly upbeat about the party’s chances despite the surveys.
Official results will be known on Tuesday.
What do you expect from Budget 2012/13?
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the annual budget in parliament on March 16.
The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) will be in focus this year. Individuals will seek more clarity on income tax slabs and the investment instruments eligible for tax exemptions. Options like tax-saving funds (ELSS) may no longer be eligible for tax breaks going ahead.
Reuters India asks its readers to don the finance minister’s cap and tell us what shape they would give to the budget.
Should the govt rescue Kingfisher Airlines?
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has summoned top executives of Kingfisher Airlines to explain a large number of flight cancellations, even as civil aviation minister Ajit Singh rules out providing any aid to the loss-making airline.
Kingfisher has so far failed in efforts to get fresh equity capital. Banks own about a quarter of its shares after the company’s debt was restructured early last year. And the State Bank of India has refused to lend further if the airline did not infuse fresh equity.
Stranded passengers have been venting their anger at the airline on social networking websites, blaming the company’s inability to provide on time information about cancelled flights.
from Abhiram Nandakumar:
Stories of intuition and hope
Infosys’ head honcho S.D. Shibulal revealed he is an INTJ type. It is hardly surprising then that Shibu, as he likes to be called, was one of the pioneers of the Global Delivery Model – corporate speak for outsourced IT services.
INTJ (short for Introvert, Intuition, Thinking and Judgment) is a rare personality type based on psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s works. INTJ personalities are self-starters, preferring to work alone without an authority looking over their shoulders and meticulously plan their activities to achieve success.
from Abhiram Nandakumar:
A garage, a beaker and a Bunsen burner
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, one of India’s most influential businesswomen and among the world’s most powerful women, says she’s an accidental entrepreneur.
Mazumdar-Shaw has shown that modest garage start-ups can extend beyond software and hardware companies. She set up what is now India's largest listed biotechnology company in 1978 and she encourages others to follow suit.
-
The Wall
