The government is going to make a final attempt to push Sonia Gandhi’s pet legislation, the food security bill, at the Cabinet meeting this Sunday. Cabinet approval is vital if the Bill is to be introduced in Parliament within the few remaining days of this session. This could possibly be the last session before Assembly elections in five states. Food Minister K V Thomas told Business Standard, “We are trying to introduce...

The government believes it is more important to be seen to be doing things than to be doing them well. The proposed food security legislation is another example of this tendency. The legislation exemplifies the self-defeating obduracy of bureaucratic modes of thinking. But the debate around it also exemplifies a failure of intellectual argument in India. Our debates often have this character. First, we spend a lot more time arguing...

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday deferred a decision on the draft National food security bill that seeks to give legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains to 46 per cent ‘priority' families of the 75 per cent rural population and 28 per cent ‘priority' households of the 50 per cent urban population. “The discussion on the Food Bill remained inconclusive. We are trying our best to introduce the Bill in this session,” Minister...

-CNN-IBN The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared three major anti-corruption bills – Citizen's Charter Bill, Judicial Accountability Bill and the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosures Bill (Whistleblower's Bill) – in a crucial meeting. The Cabinet, however, met amid reports of clearing four crucial bills, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi's favourite, the National food security bill. However, a decision on the food security bill was deferred to next week...

-The Financial Express   The Cabinet is likely to consider the National food security bill which envisages subsidised foodgrain as legal entitlement for two third of the country's population on Tuesday. Once the Cabinet approves the bill, the food ministry will table in parliament during the current season. As per the food bill, 75% of the rural households will get subsidised grain and at least’ 46% households would be considered as ‘priority’ category, and...