The flawed Bill on food security has not received the kind of publicity that the Lokpal Bill has, but that does not diminish its significance. “THIS government has divided everything and everyone. There are different cards for different sections of the poor. If my employer, taking pity on me, gives me an old television, I am not entitled to a yellow card [Below Poverty Line card]. My son who is...

Anna Hazare's campaign may lead to a new Lokpal Bill, but it has legitimised middle-class vigilantism and other kinds of civil society mobilisation. NOW that Anna Hazare has declared victory, it is time to take stock of one of the most powerful recent mobilisations of people in India, focussed on influencing policy or lawmaking processes. The victory, however, is largely symbolic. The original demand of the movement, carefully built around Hazare's...

-The Telegraph   The Comptroller and Auditor General has found gross deficiencies by the food and supplies department when the Left was in power in Bengal. The CAG report for 2009-2010 says the state food and supplies department could not claim central subsidy worth Rs 133.66 crore as it failed to furnish annual accounts of the public distribution system for the period 2005-2010. The report also says the finance department, through which the Centre...

-The Telegraph   Private hospitals in Delhi that received land at a concession from the government must honour their undertaking to treat poor patients free of charge, the Supreme Court today said in a verdict that can have an impact in other states too. The court allowed the hospitals to recoup the cost from private donors and sponsors or “by any other means”, which should include cross-subsidisation by raising rates for other patients. The...

Ankaji Bhai Gangar, a 49-year-old subsistence farmer, stood in line in this remote village until, for the first time in his life, he squinted into the soft glow of a computer screen. His name, year of birth and address were recorded. A worker guided Mr. Gangar’s rough fingers to the glowing green surface of a scanner to record his fingerprints. He peered into an iris scanner shaped like binoculars that...