Monthly e-newsletter from Focus on the Global South, India


Content summary:

Its not often that the Economist magazine, known for its free market dogmatism, find itself on the side of globalisation critics. During the recent G8 summit at Hokkaido in Japan its portrayal of the group that supposedly runs the world was less than flattering – ‘ignorant, old and impotent’ are some of the words used to describe the elite self serving club. The call from global justice groups at the summit was predictably more forceful – they called for disbanding what they called a ‘mafia of the rich and powerful’.  

Monthly e-newsletter from Focus on the Global South, India


Content summary:

Will 2008 be known as the year of global food crisis? This issue focuses on Food and Agriculture. An article by Afsar Jafri argues that the first priority of the Indian Government should be to strengthen the agriculture sector by increasing public investment, facilitating public control over inputs and the market and strictly regulating corporate investment in agriculture. In short he calls for a reversal of free market reforms in agriculture. S P Shukla discusses the implications of the latest WTO texts on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and urges the Indian government to play hardball. We carry 3 statements on the issue of food; First, by the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, second, a statement on the WTO and its role in the food crisis and three, a strongly worded resolution from farmers groups in Delhi demanding that agriculture should be left out of the WTO.