More than six decades after Independence, the Tamil Nadu government has woken up to the demands of tribals living in Vettukkadu village, surrounded by the Mullaiperiyar river and thick jungles of the Western Ghats, by opening a part-time ration shop in their area. This is the first government project in the village, which is largely inaccessible due to its location between thick forests and the Mullaiperiyar river. No government scheme, including...

Bhaggu, 65, says he can trace his memory back to when he was five. And he remembers the paradox that’s taunted him since: Of his village — Sohras, in northern Uttar Pradesh — being flooded every year and him having no water to drink. “They (government) distribute food, tarpaulin, kerosene, matchboxes but never made any arrangement for water,” says Bhaggu, a farm worker who goes by one name. “I think no...

With more than 400 million Indians going to bed hungry each day, food security has become a crucial issue. On June 4 last year, the president made an announcement: “My government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in rural as well as urban...

To avoid a big burden on the exchequer from the proposed food security law, the Planning Commission will propose some key changes to the plan, including a virtual abandonment of the concept of universal public distribution system (PDS) endorsed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in a presentation to Gandhi later this week would suggest that under the proposed scheme, grain be...

Anticipating better production in 2010-11 sugar year starting next month, the government may cut the quantity of sugar that mills have to contribute for supply through ration shops to 12 per cent of country's total output from the current 20 per cent. "We are seriously considering to cut the levy sugar obligation on mills from the current level to 12 per cent in anticipation of higher production in 2010-11 season,"...