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 National Commission for Women (NCW) on Saturday backed Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's claim of mass killing and rape by the police in Greater Noida villages after protests over land acquisition. The NCW alleged that women were molested, stripped and raped and people were burnt alive, and sought a CBI probe to “bring out the truth.” The charge came a day after the All-India Democratic Women's Association said it found...

The Jan Lokpal is being vested with sweeping powers, which are susceptible to misuse. The centralised structure of the Lokpal will be ill-suited for sorting out governance deficit. People will be confined to being complainants and applicants. There is need to make the Jan Lokpal people-centric FOR many who quite rightly guessed that the Lokpal Bill drafted by the government would be a non-starter, the alternative merited automatic support. However, little...

-The Times of India   RTI activists will get a report card of the UP State Information Commission (UPSIC ) ready. The commission entered its sixth year of functioning on March 22, 2011. The orders passed by the commission so far are not very satisfactory , is the public opinion. "Occasionally there might have been good orders," said one of the activists. The activists working in the state have appealed to all...

-The Hindu   Court wants Centre to “distribute foodgrains on an individual basis” The Supreme Court on Saturday asked the Planning Commission to revise the per capita norms to determine below poverty line looking to the price index of May 2011 or any other subsequent dates. A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, at a special sitting to hear the case relating to streamlining of the public distribution system, pointed out...