-The Business Standard Turning the country's food procurement agency into an international trader will fan inflation and hunger At a time when the Global Hunger Index 2012 ranks India 65th among 79 countries, K V Thomas, minister of state for food and public distribution and consumer affairs, has revealed that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will soon trade wheat in the futures market. Seeking clearance from the Forward Markets Commission, the...

-The Hindu After facing harassment and extortion at the hands of corrupt police and civic body officers over the years, the Capital’s rickshaw pullers can finally heave a sigh of relief. A far-reaching Supreme Court order in a case filed by an NGO has come to their rescue. It has put an end toimpounding and scrapping of their vehicles. However, the battle against officialdom which sees them as "vermin" continues.... Rickshaw-puller Shiv...

-Live Mint All file notings can be made public now except those explicitly exempted  The Union cabinet on Thursday decided to withdraw controversial draft amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act that sought to restrict disclosure of government file notings. The move allayed the concerns of rights activists. The draft amendments would have restricted disclosure of file notings only to social and developmental issues. The government had to drop the move following...

-The Economic Times There has been a change of guard at the power ministry and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the new man in charge, has described his task as daunting. To simplify the many complexities, it's worth keeping in mind an adage that's particularly apt for rural India: Nothing is more expensive than no power. While on one hand there are thousands of villages that still remain to be electrified, on the other even...

-The Hindu The question that must be asked, is whether India is willing to compromise on its laws and the safety and rights of its citizens to protect the business interests of reactor suppliers In 2010, under pressure from multinational nuclear suppliers, the Manmohan Singh government pushed through a law to protect them from the consequences of a nuclear accident. The law makes it impossible for victims to sue the supplier, even...