-Economic and Political Weekly The government has notified a Draft Land Reforms Policy which, on paper, has all the requisites of an earnest programme. Yet, the near total failure of earlier efforts at land reforms in India leave little room for hope that something substantial will at last be done to combat landlessness. Harsh Mander (manderharsh@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, and works with survivors of mass violence,...

-The Hindu How rich your State was the year you were born is a direct predictor of how tall you will grow, new research shows. But the relationship between a State's income and the height of its residents is growing weaker over time, possibly as a result of inequality within States. Faster growing States will not necessarily get healthier and taller at an equally fast rate, especially if their inequality...

-The Hindu MADURAI: Muthumari's day starts at 4 a.m. She milks her cows in the cowshed behind the house and keeps cans of milk ready to be collected by a pickup van from a private dairy company. Then she turns to her household chores and sends her children off to school. Packing the day's food for herself, she proceeds towards the fields in her village at Udayanpatti. She is not just a...

-Economic and Political Weekly India has claims to many firsts, some on the wrong side; one being the highest proportion of malnourished children in the world, higher than several of the poorer Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Panagariya (2013) hypothesises that it is the flawed measurement methodology which is responsible for the reported high prevalence of malnutrition in Indian children (p 98). He further avers that Indian children may never attain the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Cultivable land in India continues to shrink. It may not pose an immediate problem for the nation's food security but its long-term effect could be disastrous with the country needing more and more foodgrains to support its growing population. Latest data from the agriculture ministry shows that as many as 20 states reported decrease in cultivable land to the extent of 790,000 hectares in four years...