BRICS nations have successfully reached a consensus on a joint statement following extensive negotiations, with India playing a crucial role in bridging differences, particularly among West Asian members like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, despite regional conflicts and geopolitical tensions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a range of culturally significant gifts during his recent five-nation tour, including a Muga silk stole for the Italian Prime Minister and Madhubani painting for the Dutch Prime Minister, showcasing India's rich artistic heritage.
The grant will make funds available immediately for relief operations and enable several UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, the UN Children's Fund and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, to provide food, shelter, water and sanitation. Citing government statistics, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that over 2,400 people are dead and 1,500 missing after Cyclone Sidr. Over 273,000 houses, 760,000 acres of crop were destroyed.
Even as the prices of food items in the international market dropped sharply from their peak in 2008 in response to higher global stocks and improved export supplies, food prices in most of the developing countries have defied this trend and remain high.
In what could come as a piece of good news, hunger in India - as measured by the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - has come down from 16.6 per cent of the population in the 2020-2022 to 13.7 per cent in 2021-23, the latest report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2024) showed. This means that around 39.3 million people have come out of undernourishment between the two periods, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said on Tuesday.
The UN food agency has sought a political and financial push to boost sustainable agriculture in poor countries and double global food production, saying that such a move would forge a world of economic and social progress.
The joint report by UN Economic Commission for Europe and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation released on Tuesday said that consumption, production and trade of forest products reached record highs in 2006, with a slight downturn registered in 2007. That decline accelerated in 2008, marking the sharpest drop since the first oil shock of 1973, and continued into the first half of this year, it said.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation on Wednesday said global commodity prices were far from easing in the short term owing to tight supply-demand situation and warned of flare ups over food shortage.The UN FAO director general said the world has 4-5 million tonnes (MT) of cereals stocks that can feed the global population for only 8-12 weeks.
According to the latest Food Outlook, a biannual publication by the FAO focusing on developments affecting global food and feed markets, this year's food import bill for the Low Income Food Deficit Countries is forecast to reach $ 169 billion. Characterising this as a 'worrying development' the FAO noted that by the end of this year imports could cost four times as much as they did in 2000.
Lower global prices and freights, together with less cereal purchases are predicted to reduce global expenditure on imported foodstuffs in 2012, the bi-annual global market report added.
Global food prices rose by 1 per cent in March as compared to the previous month, driven mainly by an 11 per cent increase in dairy products.
In the latest edition of its 'Food Outlook' report, the UN agency asked the world community to be prepared for harder times ahead unless production of major food crops increases significantly in 2011.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, global food prices fell for the first time after eighth consecutive months of price spikes in March this year in the wake of a decline in international prices of oil, sugar and cereals.
The latest estimates of global hunger, released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), have projected the number of people going hungry every day to swell to the historic high of 1.02 billion in 2009. Almost all of them, barring a small fraction, will be in the developing countries.
UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has created a new Internet portal that provides access to a large variety of information and online training materials related to rural finance.
The global food production must shoot up by 70 per cent to be able to feed an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Wednesday.
It would also be the fifth month of consecutive drops in the index.
He noted that the current crisis was triggered by a confluence of factors including increased use of biofuels, surging demand for agri products due to population and economic growth in emerging markets and inadequate supply of cereals -- which is at its lowest levels in three decades. Further aggravating these problems are restrictive protectionist measures taken by some exporting nations, speculation on futures markets and high prices of agricultural inputs, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has collaborated with Grammy Award-winning Indian-American singer Falu for a special song to promote the benefits of millets and their potential to alleviate world hunger.
The United Nations has asked the international community to invest more in surveillance and control measures to check animal diseases. It also said the increased mobility of viruses and their carriers across countries is emerging as a new global threat.
The global agricultural production growth is expected to be low at 1.7 per cent annually during 2011-20 as compared to 2.6 per cent in the previous decade, due to lower growth in oilseeds and cereals, an agri survey said.
India and New Zealand have signed a pact to institutionalize their defence ties and vowed to boost cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns about anti-India activities by some illegal elements in New Zealand with his Kiwi counterpart Christopher Luxon. The two sides also signed six agreements to enhance cooperation in areas including education, sports, agriculture, and climate change. They also agreed to prepare a roadmap for cooperation in the defence industry sector and explore early implementation of cooperation in the digital payments sector.
The FAO price index measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.
Bulk of the starving population belong to the developing world, with Asia and the Pacific region estimated to have about 642 million hungry people in 2009, Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million, Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million while the Near East and North Africa 42 million, the report said.
UN body Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has revised upwards India's rice production to 100 million tonnes (MT) in the 2012-13 crop year on the back of revival of rains in August and September.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed in the midst of bombs and bullets even as he flagged concerns over a missile strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv.
India is home to the highest number of hungry people in the world.
Because of his proximity to Indira Gandhi, he was able to intervene directly at the level of the PMO, which he did in the days leading up to the partition of Pakistan in 1971 when he transferred crucial information about Pakistan's moves via information handed to him by an East Pakistani diplomat in Poland where he was posted.
Modi emphasised on deeper India-Africa partnership on clean energy.
Godavari Dange, a school dropout who was widowed at the age of 19 is now changing the lives of farmers in her village and beyond.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders Declaration, a significant victory for India's G20 presidency that came amid increasing tensions and divergent views over the Ukraine conflict.
Flood in the rice bowl: Keralites who lost everything stare at uncertainty.
VP Ansari thanked Polish leadership for its support to India's bid for NSG membership,
As Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma ruled out any possibility of a compromise, whispers were already being heard of a possible collapse of the talks.
I suggest we build a Vigyan Mandir (Temple of Science) with the ambience of a place of worship, so that it becomes a destination for pilgrims. We should embed on its walls bronze plaques describing each scientist mentioned here along with about a dozen of our ancient mathematicians, recommends Professor Kalyan Singhal, historian of science and technology.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which is aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports, is expected to increase the country's production by $520 billion in the next five years. Addressing a webinar on PLI scheme, organised by Department of Industry and International Trade (DPIIT) and NITI Aayog, through video conference, Modi said the government is continuously carrying out reforms to boost domestic manufacturing. In this year's Budget, about Rs 2 lakh crore was earmarked for the PLI scheme for the next five years and "there is an expectation that the scheme would result in increasing the production by about $520 billion in the next five years", he said. He added that there is also an expectation that the current workforce in the sectors, which will avail the benefits of the PLI scheme, will be doubled and job creation will also increase.
The report said South Asia is expected to be the fastest-growing region.
The most serious recommendations to change the financial year came in the years preceded by deficient rainfall. The Jha committee was formed after droughts in 1979-80 and 1982-83, reports Rishika Pardikar/IndiaSpend.
