The National Food Security Bill, 2011, designed to make access to food a legal right, is the last chance to convert Gandhiji's vision of a hunger-free India into reality. What Mahatma Gandhi said of the role of food in a human being's life in a 1946 speech at Noakhali, now in Bangladesh, remains the most powerful expression of the importance of making access to food a basic human right. Gandhiji also...

Accuses the government of creating ‘false propaganda' that he gave up fast because of some "favourite ministers" Anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare has taken on the government yet again; this time through his blog. The activist, in his first blog entry, has accused the government of creating ‘false propaganda' that he gave up his fast because of some “favorite ministers.” “I came to understand some government agents tried to propagate and create an...

-The Indian Express   Cities in India and China drowned in a sea of automobiles are experiencing maximum health issues, like "acute" as well as "chronic" respiratory problems and lung cancers, due to air pollution, a UN body has said. The rising population of SUVs (sports utility vehicles), cars and two-wheelers in Indian cities, where it is a status symbol for middle classes to posses the latest automobiles, is having a deadly impact...

-The Times of India   Shooting down anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare's suggestion for introducing right to recall in elections, chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday said the move will destabilize the system and was 'impractical'. "Right to recall is not easy in a country where candidates are voted in by lakhs of voters," he said. He feared that if the right to recall is put in place, "elections will go on...

-IANS   Assam has been allocated $2.5 million by a UN body to help improve hygiene in rural areas, stressing on the economic gains that would follow "when people spend less money on preventable sanitation-related diseases". India is among 10 countries - seven African and three Asian - which have been identified for a five-year project. India loses $53.4 billion annually due to poor sanitation and hygiene, according to a recent report...