Giving right to food is not enough to deliver food, say speakers at a conference on food security Agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan has called for setting up a body headed by the prime minister for effective execution of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) once it is enacted. All chief ministers should be members of this board, he added. NFSB was cleared by the Union Cabinet and introduced in Parliament in...

What is the point of having a great GDP if as a society we are unhealthy? I am a bit of a dreamer. I dream that one day we will be living in a country where things will be different, and where the rich and the Poor will both get the same, good, quality health care. To many it may seem like a totally impractical, and an unachievable dream. But it's...

-Live Mint After a record harvest of 90.23 mt this year, the govt’s wheat stocks were at 38.2 mt as of 1 May Worry lines run deep on the faces of wheat farmers in Sehrala in Haryana as falling prices, higher input costs and Poor infrastructure erode earnings and cast doubt over not just their next crop, but their future in agriculture as well. Agents in the grain market of Ballabgarh said spot...

When the opinion of the unattractive sweaty Indian is less important than that of his better looking, English speaking, compatriot. Diesel prices had gone up, and the input desk at NDTV in New Delhi had dispatched me to get reactions from customers at a gas station. Vox pop, they call it in the business, the voice of the people. I was interning in reporting that very hot month of June, so...

-The Hindu The government has constituted one more expert group to re-examine the methodology for fixing a poverty line and estimating the incidence of poverty in the country. Changes in average incomes and consumption patterns over time may require review and revision of the approach currently in use. However, the last such review of the methodology originally recommended by the Lakdawala committee (1993) was undertaken after more than a decade by...