How deluded we are when we think that when an important piece of legislation is introduced, policymakers carefully scrutinise it for some room for improvement. Indian democracy is good at passing progressive-sounding legislation that becomes unpopular later for poor implementation and a consequent feeling of letdown and therefore resentment. Often the problems of poor implementation that surface later stem from small mistakes in design that could have been corrected at...

The Centre has decided to include the Scheduled Tribes as a category that will, by law, be provided subsidised food grains through the public distribution system under the proposed National food security bill. The final draft also provides for supply of “ready cooked hot breakfast” to eligible school children in addition to the mid-day meals under the Integrated Child Development Scheme. Highly placed sources told The Hindu that that the Union...

With the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance raising a red flag against the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill to grant the UID (or Aadhar) project legal status, the project looks set for a slowdown . That could have broad implications for the tech sector that had laid substantial hope on it, especially when global markets are slowing down.  The UID project is estimated to offer IT companies a Rs...

Over two and a half years after President Pratibha Patil announced the government’s plan to enact a food security law, the Union Cabinet on Tuesday is slated to consider three separate versions of the National food security bill (NFSB) for introduction in the current session of Parliament. These three versions arise out of differences between the Food Ministry and the Law Ministry over the issue of grievance redressal mechanism. The Legislative...

-The Hindu Business Line   The Millet Network of India (MINI), a group of associations that is promoting consumption of millets, has expressed concern about non-inclusion of local procurement provision in the latest version of the National food security bill. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and Ms Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of United Progressive Alliance, MINI has demanded that this clause should be included again in the draft bill....