-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Accepting the argument of political parties that poll promises or "freebies" are related to the Directive Principles of State Policy, the Election Commission is considering a pragmatic set of guidelines that would allow freebies as long as they are targeted at the economically and socially weaker sections, religious minorities, women and populations living in remote, border or insurgency/disaster-hit areas. Directive principles are broad policy guidelines considered...

-The Hindu Dehradun: "I am the only one left in the family now," says Vasundhara Devi, 32, whose husband and two sons are among those who have gone missing in the Kedarnath floods in June and are now ‘presumed dead'. Poonam Tewari, whose husband Suresh owned a restaurant in Kedarnath, says, "I only have a three-year-old daughter for a family now. I need money to educate her." Sarita Bagwadi's father and two...

-The Hindu For a scheme that the Central government has declared an essential arm of its educational and nutritional objectives in the last three days, both the Central and the State governments have shown a remarkable lack of concern for the 27 lakh workers, most of them women, who administer it. The tragedy that killed 23 children in Bihar's Chapra village last Tuesday has shone a rare spotlight on India's mid-day meal...

-The New York Times Blog The right to food is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming national elections in 2014, political parties are competing to demonstrate - or at least proclaim - their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts. The rhetoric, however, is not always matched by understanding...

-The Business Standard Chhattisgarh Food Security Bill was passed on Dec 21, 2012. Under the Act, about 90% of the state's population will have PDS entitlements Raipur: In December 2007, when Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh announced no one would die of starvation, not many realised the state was going to create history. The announcement came from the sleepy village of Sonakhan in Mahasamund district, where in 1856, the landlord of the area,...