-EPW   The draft Food Bill is in a mess; a simple solution is available to make it an effective legislation.   The union cabinet’s inability to clear the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) on 13 December is both a concern and an opportunity. It is a concern because every passing day is a chance lost to bring Hunger to an end. It is an opportunity because the Bill is in dire need...

The government’s desperate race to redraft the Lokpal bill in time for passage this Parliament session has left political circles uneasy, with even some Opposition leaders conceding the dangers of lawmaking under such abnormal pressure. The Centre too is squirming at this “indecent haste”, prompted by its keenness to avoid another face-off with Team Anna. But it feels it has little choice in a political climate where “confrontationism” is giving the...

-The Times of India   MOGRAHAT (SOUTH 24-PARGANAS): The poison that has killed over 170 people on Kolkata's southern fringes flowed like rivers on Tuesday as policemen smashed bhattis and dumped the illegal liquor in dried-up ponds and canals. The don who ruled over the area, Khora Badshah, is a hunted man but is it really an open and shut case? Amid cries of conspiracy from Trinamool Congress leaders, it has not escaped...

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has asked Union food minister KV Thomas to iron out last-mile hurdles in the way of the flagship food bill before it is brought to the Cabinet again on Sunday. A lack of consensus in the Cabinet — which must clear the bill before it can be placed in Parliament — led to it being stalled last Tuesday. The Congress chief, who had overseen the bill’s drafting...

It is clearly the absence of political will rather than a paucity of ideas that is responsible for the country's agrarian crisis. EXACTLY seven years ago this month, the Commission on Farmers' Welfare, appointed by the government of Andhra Pradesh, submitted its report to the then Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. His Congress government assumed office earlier that year replacing the Telegu Desam Party regime led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, which...