-Live Mint The national food security law is in trouble from an unlikely source The outcome of the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit at Bali has been projected as a great victory for the Indian government by its spokespersons. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In exchange for a temporary reprieve on its food support programme, India has bartered away the bargaining chip of trade facilitation, which Western negotiators demanded. The...

-Frontline In a situation of increasing life expectancy and crumbling traditional support structures, a universal social pension scheme that does not rely on contribution by a person or an employer can help the elderly. INDIA prides itself on being a "young" society, likely to benefit from a demographic dividend as children and young people move into working age groups over the next decade. This optimistic view assumes that society will be able...

-Governance Now Data on ‘missing' or ‘dead' toilets - that is, toilets that exist on paper but not in reality - is a wake-up call for policymakers, says study 3,75,76,324 is the number of missing toilets in rural and urban India, according to a report collated by the Right to Sanitation Campaign based on government figures in the report titled ‘In Deep Shit'. What is a ‘missing toilet'? As the phrase suggests, it is...

-The Business Standard Politics of populism will impact the government's fightback against inflation Mumbai: With the benefits of Food Security Bill failing to kick in, government is back to playing the card which many claim helped it win the previous election. It is looking to make a substantial hike in wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), according to a latest report by Economic times. A panel...

-The Business Standard The National Optic Fibre Network project aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across the country with optical fibre The government is likely to miss the deadline for its dream project - National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across the country with optical fibre for offering 100 megabit per second (mbps) broadband services. The much-talked-about NOFN project, which was initiated in 2011 with the approval...