-The Business Standard   India's 68% population may get legal right to subsidised food if the draft National Food Security bill prepared by the Food Ministry is approved by a panel of ministers at the forthcoming meeting. After analysing the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) and Rangarajan Committee, the Food Ministry has prepared a draft bill, likely to be placed before the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food next...

The HRD ministry has taken the first step towards extending the Right to Education till the secondary level by making it part of the agenda of next month's meeting of state education ministers and the Central Advisory Board of Education. Sources say the idea of extending RTE is at the stage of infancy but the ministry is keen that the process should begin at right earnest so that it becomes...

The National Advisory Council's (NAC) idea about a uniformland acquisition policy - with the government being responsible for all public purpose transfer of tracts - has not found all-round support. There are no differences on safeguarding the rights of farmers and landowners. But experts say the most essential aspect is to put in place a powerful institutional mechanism for conflict resolution that will also supervise the process of acquisition. In the...

The revised blueprint for land acquisition envisages government retaining its facilitator role Contentious Issues     * Protests are often against land acquisition per se, regardless of compensation     * Most protests are against private builders acquiring land, changing land use. New norms don’t tackle this.     * Poor government track record in R&R does not inspire much confidence; merged bills won’t work for rehabilitation after natural calamities, etc     * Can the government, which...

Weighed down by an unending season of corruption, the political leadership of ruling the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has stepped in to rescue the regime’s flagship rural employment guarantee scheme from discredit due to mounting allegations of endemic irregularities. The National Advisory Council of the UPA, headed by Sonia Gandhi, on Wednesday asked the Manmohan Singh government to expedite notification of the much-awaited rules that would allow public scrutiny of the...