-The Business Standard   Lopsided fertiliser policy is damaging farm output Even as the indifferent monsoon is threatening to affect crop sowing in the current season, the recent spike in the prices of some fertilisers and related developments in the fertiliser sector are adding to disquiet over kharif production prospects. The government’s move to slash subsidies on non-urea fertilisers early this year, coupled with the rupee’s depreciation, has led fertiliser companies to substantially...

By stopping social security pensions, the Karnataka government has put the lives of over 10 lakh poor in peril. Naveen Basavaraj Kuntoji is nine years old and suffers from cerebral palsy. His movements are greatly restricted, and it looks like he is in great pain every time he valiantly wills his body to do something. When he is hungry, he slowly lifts his hand and points to his mouth. When this...

Citizens across 483 cities paid as much as Rs 44.77 crore in bribes, to get their land documents, electricity connections, a seat in a preferred college or register their dream home. And all this in just 21 months. Ipaidabribe, the only online forum for citizens to air their grievances when they grease palms, clocked 1 million hits as on May 31, 2012. Needless to say, it is the registration department...

Giving right to food is not enough to deliver food, say speakers at a conference on food security Agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan has called for setting up a body headed by the prime minister for effective execution of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) once it is enacted. All chief ministers should be members of this board, he added. NFSB was cleared by the Union Cabinet and introduced in Parliament in...

The interaction between less privileged and rich students will enrich the experience of both. The Supreme Court recently upheld the validity of Clause 12 of the Right to Education Act that mandates aided and non-aided private schools to reserve 25 per cent of the seats for disadvantaged children in their neighbourhoods. This is arguably a landmark judgement that creates an opportunity, though not a certainty, for rendering school a site of...