-The Business Standard State budgets are raining sops to pull farmers' votes With elections staring at them, several state governments are suddenly waking up to the demands of farmers and offering sops to the agriculture sector in their budgets, even as farmer organisations say the state and Central governments should do more.    Karnataka, which pioneered the trend of having a separate agriculture budget--similar to the railway budget at the Centre — brought...

-Tehelka The National Food Security Act is probably going to undergo many changes before it is presented in Parliament. But everyone seems to agree that it’s time has come Towards the end of January, a few days after Republic Day and a little over a week after the Congress’s conclave in Jaipur, large half-page advertisements appeared in major newspapers: “Celebrating the 63rd year anniversary of our Republic by putting food on everybody’s...

-Live Mint In an interview, India’s food minister says the Bill is about making the Right to Food a legal entitlement Prospects for the National Food Security (NFS) Bill—United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s dream legislation—haven’t looked better. Food minister K.V. Thomas, in charge of fine-tuning the contours of the Bill, is confident of steering it through Parliament during the budget session. In an interview, Thomas said the Bill isn’t merely...

-The Hindu Chhattisgarh is all set to allow private diagnostic centres at public health facilities within three months. Critics are appalled by the idea of business space for private players in public health facilities while supporters feel it will improve the pallid health care infrastructure in the State. The architect of the new model, J.P. Mishra, chief of the State Health Resource Centre — the State Health Department’s technical assistance body...

-PTI Of the 62 patients who lost sight in an eye, 44 were operated in camps at Balod, 4 in Durg and 14 in Mahasamund Raipur: Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday admitted in the state assembly that as many as 62 people were left blind in one eye after they underwent procedures at the cataract operation camps held for last two years in the state. Of the 62 patients who lost sight in an...