Concerned at flak, Manmohan asks him to call press meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday to hold a detailed press conference “at the earliest” to clarify the government's position on the black money issue and what it was doing to deal with the menace. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court sought clarity from the government on how it intended to end black money, and wanted to know...

In India, people are upset about onions. Expensive cooking oil is causing hoarding in China, a practice banned by the government. Meanwhile, flour and bread are the main source of riots in Algeria and now Jordan. Worries over food prices are gathering pace and triggering alarm among politicians across the world. For there is nothing more likely to bring down a government than ignoring starving citizens, as Marie Antoinette found to...

When we hear the word innovation, we often think of new technologies or silver bullet solutions — like hydrogen fuel cells or a cure for cancer. To be sure, breakthroughs are vital: antibiotics and vaccines, for example, transformed global health. But as we’ve argued in Fixes, some of the greatest advances come from taking old ideas or technologies and making them accessible to millions of people who are underserved. One area...

The Rangarajan Committee report is another move away from the vision of a comprehensive food security act. Undernutrition levels in India are among the highest in the world, and the problem cannot be addressed by just spending another Rs 10,000 crores or so on the Public Distribution System . The need of the hour is a comprehensive food security act that integrates a wide range of interventions, including maternity entitlements,...

Talking tough, the Supreme Court today questioned the Government as to why it was reluctant in disclosing the names of Indian nationals who have allegedly stashed black money in foreign banks. "What is the difficulty in disclosing the information," a Bench comprising B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar asked when Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium informed the bench that Government has got the details but did not want to reveal it. The...