by Stephen Leonard Jakarta – Earlier this year in Myanmar, torrential rain caused mudslides that wiped out hundreds of houses and caused large-scale crop destruction. More than 1.3 million people were affected, and over 100 died. In Vietnam, the same…
The other day I tried to help one of my senior colleagues who asked me to give the name and address of a good internal medicine doctor. It may be mentioned here that my colleagues, friends and relative often ask…
Dr. Sinha MA Sayeed Dhaka – ‘Good governance” is a term that has become a part of the lingo of a bulky range of institutions, development or else, and other actors within the cupolas of local, national, regional and international…
Sudhirendar Sharma Avoiding self-pity, the forgotten princess emerges as a woman of courage and conviction as she conducts herself independently for fourteen long years of separation from her husband. One wonders why Valmiki devoted only four lines in Ramayana on…
By Upendra Gautam The analytical piece “It is time to be a good neighbor” by Ms. Rao and Mr. Pokharel (Hindu, 17 October, 2015) has done a commendable job by questioning India’s so-called “special relationship” with Nepal. In my view,…
By Daniel Marans and Matt Ferner The family of an unarmed teenager shot dead by a sheriff’s deputy during a Michigan traffic stop in February has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the officer’s “entire course of action…
Paloalto – Since the development of the science of toxicology in the sixteenth century, its guiding principle has been that “the dose makes the poison.” It is a rule that applies to the medicines used by patients worldwide many billions…
by Asit K. Biswas,Julian Kirchherr SINGAPORE – European policymakers like to lecture the rest of the world on air pollution. Asia, and China in particular, is a favorite target for criticism. Indeed, it sometimes seems as if no major environmental…
Danielle Nierenberg As food system leaders gather in Iowa for the Borlaug Dialogues and the World Food Prize, nearly 800 million people around the world continue to suffer from chronic hunger. More than 161 million children under the age of…
Kelle Louaillier and Bill McKibben Boston – Over the last few years, a growing number of people have been taking a hard look at what is happening to our planet – historic droughts, rising sea levels, massive floods – and…
Maria Damanaki , Yoriko Kawaguchi and Jane Lubchenco London – Seafood is by far the most highly traded commodity globally,feeding billions of people worldwide. Unfortunately, however, theindustry is plagued by illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,which undermines conservation efforts and handicaps…
Danielle Nierenberg From the California estuaries to the research labs of the United States military, the 22 books we’re highlighting will take you on a journey to learn about where food comes from, where the food system is heading, and…
Mohammad Zainal Abedin, from New York Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, desperately tries to mobilise support to get UN Security Council permanent membership to gain veto power and establish India as a superpower. In New York on September…
Oby Ezekwesili , José Maria Figueres and Pascal Lamy Geneva – The just-adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are expected to herald the start of a new era in global development, one that promises to transform the world in the name…
Danielle Nierenberg The fall semester is in full swing and many students are enrolled in courses focused on food and agriculture. They realize that the food system is at a crossroads. Nearly a billion people suffer from hunger while at…
by Johan Rockström Stockholm – Our generation has a unique opportunity. If we set our minds to it, we could be the first in human history to leave our children nothing: no greenhouse-gas emissions, no poverty, and no biodiversity loss.…
Sudhurendar Sharma Indian husbands worship their mothers because they have seen cows being worshiped throughout their growing years!! Twinkle Khanna writes so beautifully that you read her words slowly, relishing them, enjoying them and rolling over them till a radiant…
Rachel Kyte Washington DC – In less than 80 days, world leaders will have the opportunity to strike a once-in-a-generation agreement in the fight against climate change. The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December could mark a…
by Sunita Narain This is our season of despair. This year, it would seem, the gods have been most unkind to Indian farmers. Early in the year came the weird weather events, like hailstorms and freak and untimely rains that…
Sudhirendar Sharma No sooner had I blessed myself for being first in the queue, and had dug myself into reading a noted historian’s much-talked about interview on ‘past is present’, my ‘present’ was shattered by a middle-age intruder who had…
Robert J. Burrowes In his just-released book, ‘Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing out of Catastrophe’, http://www.versobooks.com/books/1985-disaster-capitalism Antony Loewenstein offers us a superb description of the diminishing power of national governments and international organisations to exercise power in the modern world…
Danielle Nierenberg Young people are the future of food security. By 2050, youth, ages 15-24, are expected to reach 1.4 billion, or 14 percent of the population. At Food Tank, we recognise youth as the next generation of food system…
by Sharan Burrow The tale of two Gulf countries is a real puzzle. Oman and Qatar both are petroleum-rich, with roughly 1.7 million migrant workers. Here the similarities end. My first visit to Oman this month showed me there is…
Gro Harlem Brundtland London – When Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote that “All that is solid melts into air,” they intended it as a metaphor for the disruptive transformations that the Industrial Revolution implied for established social norms. Today,…
Mostafa Kamal Majumder People from any corner of Bangladesh now have cyber access to the world through smart phones or computers. They can make business deals, transactions, and know of well-beings of near and dear ones across continents by using…
Danielle Nierenberg The Organic Trade Association (OTA), a membership-based organization of organic food companies, is working to bust myths about organic food. “Despite organic sales and accessibility at all-time highs, consumer confusion about organic benefits remains significant,” say Laura Batcha,…
Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs exposes latest global peaks of production and consumption, as well as associated impacts Washington, D.C. – From coal to cars to coffee, consumption levels are breaking records. According to the Worldwatch Institute’s latest report, Vital Signs,…
Sudhirendar Sharma Drone-led covert war against terrorism is loaded with hitherto unheard social and political implications. With wars increasingly being fought between states and non-state actors, weapons armed with artificial intelligence have replaced erstwhile indiscriminate bombings with targeted killings. Fought…
By Bill Gates SEATTLE – A few years ago, Melinda and I visited with a group of rice farmers in Bihar, India, one of the most flood-prone regions of the country. All of them were extremely poor and depended on…
Masum Billah ‘When a child reaches the age appropriate for enrolling in class-I, he or she should have to be admitted, and there’s no need to sit for test with printed papers because this is his or her right, not…