In its fourth meeting here, the joint draft panel on Lokpal Bill converged on half of the 40 points listed in the basic principles tabled by the civil society members, but postponed decision on contentious issues including bringing the Prime Minister and higher judiciary under the purview of the Lokpal/lokayukta.. Based on public consultations and hearings, the civil society members gave to the government, another list of “extra 31 basic principles”...

An insightful article on “The wheat mountains of the Punjab” by Professor M.S. Swaminathan – one of the world's leading agricultural scientists and food policy experts – and a couple of reports on the Supreme Court of India's observations and directions on the same subject, published in this newspaper have drawn the attention of readers in substantial numbers. The article, published on May 11, 2011, throws new light on the present...

The Delhi government might be the first in the country to implement the cash-transfer scheme, replacing the existing public distribution system (PDS). The Food and Civil Supplies Department is in the final round of discussions with the Union government on the issue. Though the Delhi government had put forward this proposal almost three years ago, it had been in cold storage ever since. The project has now been revived. Central Delhi,...

Sharp differences between Government representatives and civil society members in the Lokpal drafting committee came to the fore over basic issues such as the structural set-up of Lokpal, maximum punishment for corruption and graded punishment for culprits, during the fourth meeting of the panel here on Monday. However, Union Minister and panel member Kapil Sibal said that there was consensus on "almost half of the" 40 points brought to the table...

The agriculture ministry has decided to drastically reduce the number of central schemes after it found that most of its schemes, barring a few like the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), have become redundant. The farm ministry thinks only 10 of the 51 existing schemes should be sufficient to take care of the sector. The total outlay for agriculture schemes is 15,034 crore. "It is true that many of our 51 schemes...