The Hindu MEDIA FOCUS: "Perhaps because of the large number of journalists involved in the controversy, most Indian newspapers and TV channels have not covered the Radia tapes at all." The Niira Radia episode raises questions about the boundary between legitimate news gathering, lobbying and influence peddling. The publication of taped conversations between Niira Radia — a lobbyist for Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata with a keen interest in the allocation of...

Maharashtra weeded out 2.9 million bogus ration cards last year, launching an identity verification drive to make the system foolproof. Residents had to provide electoral roll numbers, electricity bills and rent receipts to receive a ration card. Migrants had to present an official document confirming their change in residence. That LED to the exclusion of many poor, homeless and migrant families as they lacked the necessary papers. This is the kind...

The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia Gandhi, will give final shape to a draft food security law incorporating its suggestion of differential legal entitlement of foodgrains to nearly 800 million people through a reformed PDS network. Some members of the NAC were keen to on drafting the food security bill themselves and we will discuss the matter on Friday, a member of the advisory panel told PTI. "Our endeavour...

Yaga Venugopal Reddy , former Reserve Bank of India governor credited with saving the nation’s financial system from the 2008 meltdown, has said what many finance experts believed, but did not have the courage to admit publicly: microfinance is India’s subprime. “Ultimately, it’s something like subprime lending,” Mr Reddy told ET in an interview ahead of his book release. “The same incentives are operating here... it was securitisation and derivatives that...

A parliamentary committee has asked the government to consider incentivising private players to set up grain storage facilities as it prepares to implement the right to food. The government will require around 620 lakh tonnes of foodgrain annually to implement the food security law. The official procurement stood at 539.75 lakh tonnes in the recent marketing year. “(The) government should provide soft loans at affordable rates and subsidies to private players to...