-The Economic Times For nearly two decades, the Government of India has implemented a stingy pension programme for the elderly poor. "An insult to the dignity" of the elderly is how rural development minister Jairam Ramesh describes the pension amount of Rs 200 per month given under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS). A few states provide a somewhat generous supplemental pension, most provide a tiny supplemental amount, some...

It needs pensive reflection to understand how an organisation whose name is perhaps the most widely recognised public sector brand across the length and breadth of India could become the target of so much instant anger and contempt in the highest legislative forum of the republic. Krishna Kumar (anhsirk.kumar@gmail.com) teaches education at Delhi University. The cyclone that hit Parliament on 11 and 14 May over the so-called cartoon controversy indicates, among other...

-Live Mint After a record harvest of 90.23 mt this year, the govt’s wheat stocks were at 38.2 mt as of 1 May Worry lines run deep on the faces of wheat farmers in Sehrala in Haryana as falling prices, higher input costs and poor infrastructure erode earnings and cast doubt over not just their next crop, but their future in agriculture as well. Agents in the grain market of Ballabgarh said spot...

-India Today A top agricultural research official's idea that India's age-old plant genetic resources can be made available to MNCs in return for better technology for farmers has invited criticism from non-governmental groups as well as individuals. Dr S. K. Datta, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) deputy director-general for crop science, claimed that many of India's plant germplasm or species were in the public domain and already being used by MNCs...

In a Bangladeshi folk story, a disabled grandfather is carried by his son in a basket, to be abandoned in the forest. On seeing this, the grandson calls out, 'Father, please be sure to bring back the basket. I will need it when you grow old'. Three thousand ageing men and women gathered in Delhi in the blazing midsummer heat to demand a universal pension for all aged people, not...