By stopping social security pensions, the Karnataka government has put the lives of over 10 lakh poor in peril. Naveen Basavaraj Kuntoji is nine years old and suffers from cerebral palsy. His movements are greatly restricted, and it looks like he is in great pain every time he valiantly wills his body to do something. When he is hungry, he slowly lifts his hand and points to his mouth. When this...

Bengal is staring at the possibility of losing self-sufficiency in rice unless the state manages to reverse a declining trend and step up production by as much as 12 per cent over the next four years. Lack of self-sufficiency in grain production need not necessarily be an alarming factor for a modern economy. But such a status is looming over Bengal in spite of factories not mushrooming on farmland — the...

-The Economic Times Indian officials say the agreement that will be ratified by government leaders at the Rio 20+ conference on sustainable development on Friday addresses their major concerns even as NGOs stepped up their opposition to the final text, saying it contained no specific commitments and no timetables.  Government officials say the outcome document, called the "The Future We Want'', retains the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR), which creates...

-The Hindu Reservation on the basis of religion has always raised serious constitutional concerns and a recent ruling of the Andhra Pradesh High Court (which the Supreme Court refused to stay) declaring the sub-quota for minorities unconstitutional only illustrates this constitutional tension. This is not the first time that the Andhra Pradesh High Court has declared reservation for religious minorities constitutionally invalid. In 2005, a five-judge-bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court...

If proof is needed of a policy paralysis, a recent official admission that poverty cannot be eradicated by 2020 cannot be dismissed out of hand. That this follows the Planning Commission's estimate of a rapid decline in poverty over the period 2004-05 and 2009-10 is not just intriguing but arguably schizophrenic. The former is utterly pessimistic while the latter is optimistic notwithstanding dubious price adjustments designed to deliver a favourable...