Food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is being praised in some quarters for daring to take a politically incorrect position. In a sharp disagreement with the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council's (NAC) proposal to supply subsidised food to 75% of the population, Pawar has pointed out two flaws in the proposal: first, that it is unaffordable and second that it is near impossible to procure and store the required food...
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Illegal financial flows: the great drain robbery by P Sainath
India has lost nearly a half-trillion dollars in illegal financial flows out of the country, says a new study by Global Financial Integrity. India is losing nearly Rs.240 crore every 24 hours, on average, in illegal financial flows out of the country. The nation lost $213 billion (roughly Rs.9.7 lakh crore) in illegal capital flight between 1948 and 2008. However, over $125 billion (Rs.5.7 lakh crore) of that was lost in...
More »Jairam ‘criminal’ tag on fuel-guzzlers
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh today said the use of sports utility vehicles and BMWs in India was “criminal” and called for changes in diesel pricing to discourage people from riding fuel-guzzlers. He said India’s SUV market was growing on subsidised diesel, the owners benefiting from the subsidies intended mainly to help farmers. “The growth of large-size vehicles like SUVs is a growth of concern.... The use of vehicles such as SUVs and...
More »Towards a Comprehensive Food Security Bill for All by Dipa Sinha
The NAC proposals for the food security bill are narrow and lack in vision. What is needed is a comprehensive bill with universalisation of PDS and a focus on child malnutrition. There was much excitement when food security became one of the issues in the manifestos of most major political parties in the run up to the 2009 General Elections. With burgeoning food stocks, double-digit food inflation, stagnant malnutrition rates, declining...
More »Miners may have to pay for the project-hit from day 1 by Subhash Narayan
Mining companies will have to start paying compensation to project-affected people right from the day a mining block is allocated to them and not when they start generating profits, a proposal that will further sweeten the deal for those who lose their land to industrialisation, but stoke more protest from miners. Once the project starts making profits, the displaced families will be provided an annuity income from the net income, but...
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