-The Hindustan Times The original intention was laudable but the final product leaves quite a bit to be desired. To make matters worse, the timing of its launch is all wrong, making everyone suspicious about whether the UPA government is really serious about the issue of hunger and food entitlement or is only interested in the votes that a food security law could fetch in the coming general elections. The National Food...

-The Hindustan Times The Cabinet on Wednesday finally approved an ordinance to launch the ruling Congress's showpiece welfare legislation, the National Food Security Bill, after a four-year political roller-coaster ride. The decision on the ordinance was unanimous, food minister KV Thomas said, adding that it was being sent to the president for his approval. An ordinance allows laws to be enacted when Parliament is not in session, although it needs to be...

-The Business Standard Not so efficiently or transparently but there is progress and hope, besides showcasing likely problems with the Centre's own law Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh): The UPA government at the Centre has been mulling hard on ways to enact its Food Security Bill, even as the Chhattisgarh government has completed six months of enacting a like law, one providing 35 kg of rice a month at Rs 2 a kg to all...

-NDTV Mumbai: The National Food Security Bill and its benefits are being debated in the country but they have little meaning for Sonabai Patni's family of five, who lives under a plastic sheet in South Central Mumbai's Elphinstone area. Teeming once with textile mills, Elphinstone is now home to shiny corporate offices. A small patch of the pavement enclosing one of this office complexes near Kamla Mills was home to the...

-The Business Standard Chhattisgarh proves no cash transfer or UID is needed to make PDS work Viewed from a ration shop in Surguja in the largely poor tribal north of Chhattisgarh, the arguments for and against the food security Bill seem way off the mark. We had travelled there to see first-hand Chhattisgarh's much-celebrated transformation of its broken, corrupt public distribution system (a recent survey found that wastage of PDS grain dropped...