'Food subsidy is a massive burden…if so much is spent on subsidies, what is left for development?' agriculture minister Sharad Pawar recently asked. It is a legitimate question that is on the minds of many but seldom gets asked for fear of appearing callous. Are we prematurely trying to be a welfare State? In the developed world, safety nets like food stamps are regarded as humanitarian obligations toward the poor....

A persons's caste claim cannot be dismissed merely because his personal traits do not match the peculiar anthropological and ethnological characteristics of a Scheduled Tribe that he claims to be part of, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. Introducing a liberal interpretation for testing the genuineness of caste claims and benefits, a bench of Justices D K Jain and A K Ganguly said if a claimant has the right documents to...

Laying speculation to rest, RSS Sar-Sanghchalak Mohanrao Bhagwat said that his organization and Anna Hazare go back a long way. If Bhagwat is to be believed, it was the RSS that urged Anna to go in for a movement against corruption but the organization never took active part in it. "If the RSS is asked by Anna to join the movement, we shall do so. But, no such request has...

'Economic growth will need massive energy. Will we allow an accident in Japan, in a 40-year-old reactor at Fukushima, arising out of extreme natural stresses, to derail our dreams to be an economically developed nation?' Every single atom in the universe carries an unimaginably powerful battery within its heart, called the nucleus. This form of energy, often called Type-1 fuel, is hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of times more powerful...

The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Sunday visited the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) and asserted that there was no need for any panic as it had state-of-the-art safety features. At the same time, Mr. Kalam made it clear that he had not come as an emissary of the Union government and would not be a mediator between the nuclear establishment and protesters opposing the plant. “I am completely satisfied and...