-The Business Standard Peg decline at 7.8 percentage points between 2009-10 and 2011-12 The poverty rate has declined by 7.8 percentage points in two years, according to the latest estimates by the Planning Commission. If 29.8 per cent of the population was poor in 2009-10, the figure came down to 22 per cent in 2011-12. The estimates are based on the recently-released report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) for 2011-12. This...

-The Business Standard The new price caps for 191 essential drugs are likely to introduce serious distortions in the market for these medicines The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, or NPPA, has announced new price caps for 191 essential drugs that are 10 to 50 per cent lower than the current prices. Drug makers have 45 days to recall the earlier batches and send out new ones with the lower price tags. This...

-The Guardian A landmark bill to make the right to food a legal entitlement is mired in controversy over its failure to address a flawed public food distribution system, misplaced priorities and exclusions India has an over abundance of food grains stocked in warehouses, yet millions of India's poor are left without food. Development practitioners and NGOs are in favour of disbanding the current food security system, the public distribution system (PDS),...

-The New York Times Blog The right to food is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming national elections in 2014, political parties are competing to demonstrate - or at least proclaim - their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts. The rhetoric, however, is not always matched by understanding...

-Outlook New Delhi: Over five lakh families in Delhi will be provided food grains initially under the ambitious food security programme which will be launched here on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who has already announced that Delhi will be the first city to roll out the scheme, today held lengthy meeting with top brass of her government to finalise modalities to...