-The Hindu Business Line Article 66A of the Information Technology Act has no place in a free and democratic society If everybody who ever offended anybody - intentionally or otherwise - is to be locked up, then half the country would be behind bars. It is astonishing, therefore, that provisions in the law which mandate precisely such an outcome for offending someone - without, moreover, even defining what exactly is meant by...

-HuffingtonPost.in   Corruption in the Public Distribution System has been cited by the Indian government as the main reason to go for cash transfers to low-income and below-poverty-line families that qualify for receiving them. Such corruption includes siphoning off grains meant for the poor by middlemen and then selling them in the open market to make profit, or higher income families receiving subsidized food through collusion with officials. Both lead to leakages and...

-The Financial Express Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have reported sharp falls in grain leakages through public distribution system (PDS) during the period between 2004-05 and 2011-12, according to an assessment by development economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera. In Chhattisgarh, which took several measures such as digitisation of beneficiaries lists, fair-price shops and GPS tracking of foodgrain carrying trucks, the estimated grain leakage has reduced to only 9.3% in 2011-12 from 51.8%...

-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru: Prospects for wheat exports in the new marketing season are turning bleak on falling global prices even as the country is seen headed for a bumper output this year. The recent fall in Euro against the dollar has made the French wheat cheaper thereby exerting pressure on the global prices. Wheat prices, which hovered around $6.6 a bushel in Chicago during mid December are now down to...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: Bihar, along with Chhattisgarh and Orissa, have recorded the highest improvement among all states in the operations of their public distribution system (PDS), measured by the extent of grain leakages taking place. Development economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera estimate that only 9.3 per cent of the foodgrains channeled through Chhattisgarh's PDS network failed to reach the intended consumers in 2011-12. This is a substantial reduction relative...