The proposed Food Security Bill should adopt a three-pronged strategy that constitutes a Universal Public Distribution System for all, low-cost foodgrains to the needy, and convergence in the delivery of nutrition safety net programmes.  In his latest budget speech, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced: “We are now ready with the draft Food Security Bill which will be placed in the public domain very soon.” Although no official draft has been...

Members of the Right to Food Campaign on Monday “rejected'' the proposed draft of the National Food Security Bill that promises 25 kg. of food grains to each Below Poverty line population family a month at Rs. 3 a kg and urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come up with a bill that covers every adult resident of the country under the Public Distribution System (PDS). “Nothing short of a universal...

There is little or no doubt that the idea of direct cash transfers to India’s poorest has some heavy hitters behind it now. Besides the now famous second chapter of the Economic Survey and definite hints (and some statements that were more than hints) from Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, several state leaders have spoken up in favour of it. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has more than once said that...

Birth gender disparity is greatest in the region China, India together account for over 85 million of the nearly 100 million “missing'' women The problem of “missing girls'' – a scenario where more boys are born than girls, as girl foetuses are presumably aborted, and women die from health and nutrition neglect – is growing in Asia Pacific. Birth gender disparity is the greatest in East Asia, where 119 boys are born...

This is the second term of the UPA and till now we have always seen Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the UPA chairperson, working in perfect harmony but NDTV has learnt that there is one issue that they disagree, on that of RTI amendments. It's a rare occasion when the Prime Minister has stood firm and refused Congress president Sonia Gandhi's request. In a letter to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi...