In an all-too-rare political consensus, India’s Central government and 10 states on Thursday decided to take a call in the following few weeks on reintroducing harsh laws that will severely punish hoarders in order to mitigate food inflation. A core committee comprising representatives of the states and the Centre, and led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, appointed three sub-groups to come up with a solution within 45 days. One of the...

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme has been conceived as a major intervention by the Central government to deal with the high rates of infant mortality, low birth weight, and malnutrition among women and children. The scheme essentially targets children in the age group of zero to six years and women in the reproductive age group. The problem is that the ICDS is seen as the success story behind...

The government’s effort to draft a seminal law to fight hunger is flawed, inadequate, opaque and “not in the spirit of the election promises” in the Congress manifesto, says a confidential note circulated to top ministers at a late-evening meeting on Monday. The three-page note—a copy of which is with the Hindustan Times—came from the office of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and was handed to the select empowered group of ministers...

A meticulously researched book by A. Vaidyanathan, Agricultural Growth in India: Role of Technology, Incentives and Institutions, is an illuminating scholarly work. Thinking about it one realizes the dismal and declining state of Indian agriculture and the poor governance at both Central and state government levels that has brought it to this sorry pass. A valuable compendium of data and analysis of Indian agriculture since Independence, it is a valuable...

In our 63rd year of Independence, the Right to Education Act comes into effect on April 1. On the eve of its launch, the Union education minister has balanced our perspective by another resolve. India’s enrolment rate for higher education is around 12 per cent. He would increase this to 30 per cent, in line with the advanced nations. There is only one snag. Unlike in advanced countries, one Indian in...