-The Hindu In its latest form, the National Food Security Bill, 2013 promises to address the extreme irony of an ambitious nation holding mountains of food in storage, while masses of its people are undernourished or even starving. The right to food is finally on the threshold of being legislated. Every step taken to widen the coverage of food security schemes is an advance. Yet, the empirical truth is that...

-The Hindu But both police and Tritiya Prastuti Committee deny claim Kunda (Jharkhand): All through Monday and Tuesday, cadres of the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a splinter group of the banned CPI (Maoist), in the Sarengdah and Kunda panchayats in Chatra district kept track of what their leaders decided to do with the 25 Maoists taken hostage four days ago. In the March 29 attack, the TPC also killed 10 Maoists after...

-The Hindu On Monday, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, completes three years of its existence - the time frame within which authorities were to ensure that its provisions were fully implemented - to make basic education a legal entitlement to all children aged 6-14. However, official statistics and reports from the field paint a far-from satisfactory picture, with citizens moving court against the competent authority...

-The Hindu MADPAL (SOUTH CHHATTISGARH): The Chhattisgarh police have killed two activists of the Salwa Judum, a government-backed militia to take on Naxalites, which the Supreme Court declared illegal and unconstitutional. A couple of eyewitnesses told The Hindu that the villagers, of the Muria Gond tribe, were "killed in cold blood by the police." A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident, which has angered the residents of several villages in Bijapur...

-The Business Standard Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi professor and development economist Reetika Khera tells Sreelatha Menon that the food Bill may not be a leap ahead, but it is certainly a step forward * The food Bill is a guarantee for lifelong dependence on government doles. As an economist, can one defend such a policy? The food Bill should be seen as an investment. "Labour" is India's most important asset. In that sense,...