The National Advisory Council (NAC) had been widely credited with framing three pro-people legislations — the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Right to Information (RTI) and the Forest Rights Act — under the UPA 1 government. So when NAC 2 began discussions on the Food Security Act in mid-2010, expectations were high. The initial vision of an act with a universal public distribution system (PDS), extensive children's entitlements...

The coal ministry has rejected the Planning Commission’s suggestion to allow phased extraction of coal from prohibited areas saying that the robust demand for coal from expanding steelmakers and power generators fast outpaces the plan to mine in stages. The Planning Commission had mooted the idea of phased coal mining in about 203 coalfields, that were earlier declared out-of-bounds for mining by the environment ministry. But strong mining potential at the restricted...

Driven by trade interest, EU is pushing Endosulfan for POP listing Elimination of Endosulfan is expected to severely impact pollination and India’s farming India is today the second largest producer of horticulture crops (fruits at vegetables) and annually produces over 215 million mt (2008-09 figures source Ministry of Agriculture). This is almost as much as India’s total food grain production of 235 million mt (2008-09 figures source Ministry. of Agriculture). India’s export...

With surplus onion in markets across the country, there is finally some relief for the consumers as prices of the bulb fell by about Rs1,000-Rs1,500 per quintal on Monday. However, it irked farmers so much that they shut down the wholesale market at Lasalgaon in Nashik in the afternoon and demanded lifting of the ongoing export ban. The Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) wholesale market opened on Monday with onions...

The need for ensuring food security for the poor is indisputable. However, the means to do so have to be practical and fiscally sustainable. That is what the prime minister’s economic advisory council Chairman C Rangarajan and a group headed by him, which looked into the proposed food security law, seem to think. Most of the points raised by this panel about the recommendations of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory...