Padma Bhushan awardee and noted agricultural economist Vijay Shankar Vyas passed away on Wednesday here after a brief illness, a family member said. He was 87. The last rites will be performed at the Lal Kothi crematorium, his elder son Vikram Vyas said. He had held several C, professional and leadership positions in national and international organizations. The economist was the director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Jaipur.

He was also a senior advisor in the World Bank’s agriculture and rural development department. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot condoled Vyas’s demise. “Deeply saddened by the demise of noted agricultural economist and Padma Bhushan Vijay Shankar Vyas. His work was acclaimed world over.

“With his passing Rajasthan and especially Bikaner has lost one of its leading sources of inspiration. My condolences to the family,” Raje said in a tweet. Gehlot said Vyas contribution in forming the state’s and country’s economic and public welfare policy was immense. He was the vice president of the state planning board during my tenure as CM and will be remembered for his talent, Gehlot said in his condolence message.

We now have three years of global hunger or chronic deprivation”, Cindy Holleman, Senior Economist at FAO, told UN News in an interview on Tuesday. “Many governments and organisations had made a lot of achievements in reducing hunger and it had been falling for 10-15 years,” she said, adding that “the levels of hunger are now where they were, almost a decade ago.”

Noting that “this is an alarming signal,” she explained that the increase is mostly due to three drivers across the world: the intensification of conflict, an economic downturn and the effects of climate change.

The report emphasizes that climate variability and extremes are already undermining food production in some regions and, if action to mitigate disaster risk reduction and preparedness is not taken, the situation will only get worse as temperatures are expected to continue to rise and become more extreme.

“We must also keep in mind that the underlying factors or causes of hunger are also poverty, and inequalities and marginalization”, Ms. Holleman added, stressing that, as the world works to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, addressing these root causes will be as critical as implementing peace and climate resilience initiatives.

China on Wednesday said it was "pleased" to see infrastructure cooperation among countries in the region, when asked about today's launching of work on India's first high-speed rail or bullet train project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad.

Beijing also said it "stands ready" to take forward cooperation with India, with China already carrying out feasibility studies for two high-speed rail (HSR) or bullet-train projects in India, between Chennai and New Delhi and from New Delhi to Nagpur.

The launching of work on the 500-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad line, India's first HSR line set to be completed by 2023, is the highlight of the Japanese PM's India visit, which kicks off in Gujarat today.

China and Japan are currently the biggest exporters of HSR technology, with Beijing scoring over Tokyo in securing projects in Indonesia and Thailand. While Japan's famed shinkansen bullet train network long predates China's, Beijing has since 2008 rapidly gone forward with installing more than 20,000 km of HSR track, which is today the world's longest bullet train network.

Russia launches a week of massive military exercises in the far east of the country this week and the Pentagon will be watching the "war games" very closely, experts told CNBC.

As many as 300,000 Russian troops are expected to take part in large-scale military drills as part of "Vostok 2018," Russia's annual military training exercises taking place between September 11-17.

Aside from personnel, up to 36,000 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles will be involved, Russia's Ministry of Defence said in a statement on their website on Tuesday. In addition, over 1,000 aircraft, helicopters and drones, and 80 ships and supply vessels will take part. Vostok 2018 will also see the Russian military practice massive airstrikes and measures against cruise missiles.

This year's military exercises, widely known as "war games," are set to be the biggest to take place since 1981 when the Cold War overshadowed international relations.

The Haryana government on September 10 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to set up an ethanol plant in Panipat with an outlay of over Rs 900 crore.

The initiative at village Bohali with a proposed capacity of 100 kilolitres of ethanol per day will manage crop residue and prevent straw burning before the upcoming paddy season, an official release said.

The MoU was signed by Director,

New Delhi: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has discovered a hoard of 254 copper coins of medieval period within the Khirki mosque compound here during the conservation of the monument, said Ministry of Culture on Wednesday.

The mosque built by Khan-i-Jahan Junan Shah, the prime minister of Firoz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88), lies on the southern periphery of the village Khirki, the ministry said in a statement, adding it was believed to be one of the seven mosques built by the latter.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has prohibited the manufacture, sale or distribution of 328 fixed dose combinations (FDCs) for human use with immediate effect. It has also restricted the manufacture, sale or distribution of six FDCs, subject to certain conditions.

Earlier, the Central Government had, through its notifications published on the March 10, 2016 in the Gazette of India, prohibited 344 FDCs under Section 26 A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. Subsequently, the Government had prohibited five more FDCs under the same provisions.

However, the matter was contested by the manufacturers in various high courts and the Supreme Court of India.

Drugs Technical Advisory Board view
In compliance with the directions given by the apex court in its judgment of December 15, 2017, the matter was examined by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board constituted under Section 5 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 which furnished its report on these drugs to the Central Government. The Drugs Technical Advisory Board recommended, among other things, that there was no therapeutic justification for the ingredients contained in 328 FDCs and that these FDCs may involve risk to human beings.

New Delhi: The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal for the complete electrification of Indian Railways in the next four years, reducing dependance on imported fossil fuel and saving revenue for the national carrier.

The move will cost the government ₹12,134 crore, rail minister Piyush Goyal said after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

The Scheme is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce as announced in the Union Budget for 2018.Briefing media in New Delhi, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said, the step is a major boost to the pro-farmers initiative of the Government.

Radha Mohan Singh said, the new Umbrella Scheme includes the mechanism of ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers and is comprised of Price Support Scheme, Price Deficiency Payment Scheme and Pilot of Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme.

This is a step aims at protecting the farmers’ income which is expected to go a long way towards the welfare of farmers. The Cabinet also decided that participation of private sector in procurement operation needs to be piloted so that on the basis of learnings the ambit of private participation in procurement operations may be increased.

The government has already increased the MSP of kharif crops by following the principle of 1.5 times the cost of production. It is expected that the increase in MSP will be translated to farmer’s income by way of robust procurement mechanism in coordination with the State Governments.

Union Ministry of Personnel and Public Grievances is organizing a two-day regional conference on 'Good Governance with Focus on Aspirational Districts' at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh today.

There will be 5 Technical sessions in the 2-day conference. 13 presentations will be made in 4 sessions of day one. Department of Administrative Reforms and Madhya Pradesh government are jointly organizing the conference where delegates from 12 States and two Union Territories will participate.

The conference is an effort to create a common platform to share experiences in the formulation and implementation of best practices in citizen-centric governance and improved public service delivery through e-Governance, transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly effective administration. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has organized 28 such Regional Conferences till date.