The goal of food for all can be achieved only through greater and integrated attention to production, procurement, preservation and public distribution. The President, in her address to Parliament on June 4, 2009, announced: “My Government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide a statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in...

The much-acclaimed public distribution system (PDS) of Kerala has lost its scope and acceptance due to diminished allotment of cereals and repeated reductions in coverage. Experts admit that prior to the introduction of targeting, Kerala had one of the best run and most effective PDS networks in India and a model system worth emulating by the other states in the country. Kerala was the only state in India with near-universal coverage...

In June 1991, the country embarked on a bold adventure by exposing to market vicissitudes its insulated manufactories, regulated (but pockmarked with soft spots) financial markets and inexperienced economic players. An economy, in those days, was about people, not giant factories and ships with riches. Though successive governments have secured the reformative underpinnings of the liberalisation process, it is to the credit of players in India that the sublime quest...

Last year may have been a cruel year for much of the country with slow growth and double-digit food inflation, but India's high net worth individuals (HNWIs) prospered — just over 120,000 in number, or 0.01% of the population, their combined worth is close to one-third of India's Gross National Income (GNI). HNWIs, in this context, are defined as those having investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding primary...

Companies that do not set up a sexual harassment complaints committee within their organization can be penalized under sweeping provisions proposed in a draft Bill to check sexual abuse at the workplace. The Bill, cleared by the law ministry and expected to be discussed in the Cabinet by mid-July, also seeks to make false complaints of sexual harassment punishable under service rules. In an effort to cover every working woman...