-Outlook Why free mobiles to BPL folks is a bad idea  “Here you don’t have money to provide them food, and you are thinking of giving them phones,” scoffs a minister in the UPA government, obviously off the record. His comment mirrors the general negative reaction to the ‘Har Haath Mein Phone’ scheme mooted by the Planning Commission, which aims to provide a free mobile phone to each below the poverty line...

-World Food Programme Global food prices have taken a worrying turn as drought in the United States causes grain prices to surge. In the latest episode of the Food Factor Podcast, we spoke with WFP’s Deputy Director of Food Security Analysis Arif Husain to find out what the third food-price shock in five years means for the fight against hunger. * What are the main factors behind rising food prices this year? The...

-The Times of India The clamour over Pakistan fanning communal passions in India through social networking SITes has missed a crucial detail. Around 20% of the web pages — blocked by government agencies — were uploaded by right-wing Hindu fundamentalists seeking to polarize the country on communal lines.  In these posts doctored images or videos showing alleged atrocities against tribal Bodos by Muslims have been tagged with provocative captions and point to...

-The Hindu Talking tough to non-cooperating social networking webSITes, the Centre on Wednesday said it had given an ultimatum to micro-blogging SITe Twitter to remove around 30 web pages still carrying inflammatory content such as morphed pictures and fake videos or face penal action. Minister for Communications and IT Kapil Sibal will be meeting National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Intelligence Bureau Director Nehchal Sandhu and Electronics and IT Secretary J. Satyanarayana on...

-The Business Standard Cautious optimism about the revival of the monsoon  A progressive improvement in the monsoon, after a dismal June that saw rainfall deficient by over 30 per cent, has eased some worries over kharif crop production. Since then the rainfall deficit has been halved to 15 per cent, dispelling fears of a SITuation as bad as in 2009, when severe drought lowered foodgrain production by seven per cent. In addition,...