-Institute of Economic Growth This paper focusses on two Indian laws that seek to guarantee socioeconomic rights: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), an important example of India's recent history of legislation of social and economic rights, and the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA), currently in Parliament. Various means of democratic politics, including a ten-year old public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court and public Mobilisation through the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Worried over the rising prices of vegetables, particularly onion, chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday assured that the prices will come down by Rs 3-4 per kg on Thursday. Dikshit said Delhi is not an onion producing state, yet the vegetable is being sold for Rs 60 per kg at Safal outlets, whereas across the country the average price is Rs 83 per kg. "Delhi has...

-Down to Earth If any other cause was responsible for so many deaths and injuries as we see on our roads it would have been a state of emergency Sunita Narain-our colleague and friend-was seriously injured in an accident while cycling yesterday. A car hit her and fled. This cruel act of crime and heartlessness could have shattered our faith in humanity had it not been for the kind act of the...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The alleged chit fund scam in West Bengal involving the Saradha Group revolves around a total sum of Rs 2,460 crore with 80 per cent of the depositors' monies still remaining unpaid, a latest investigation report has revealed. The report also states that the arrested Saradha chairman Sudipta Sen was in "total control" of all deposits made by his group companies, which are under the scanner for having perpetrated...

-The Business Standard Contrary to earlier claims, farm growth may be robust The projection by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) of robust agricultural growth of above five per cent and a consequential handsome rise in rural incomes comes as a silver lining to India's otherwise gloomy economic scene. The CACP's reckoning, based on a rigorous mathematical model, virtually discounts the agriculture ministry's kharif crop output estimates (called first advance...