-Live Mint Cabinet refers land acquisition Bill to GoM to resolve differences after five ministers express apprehensions Differences within the Union cabinet have nixed the plans of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to fast-track a new legislation for land acquisition and compensation, widely seen as a key measure to spur investment in the economy. Consequently, the cabinet on Tuesday referred the controversial land acquisition Bill to a ministerial group (a so-called group...

-The Hindu Ethical, legal issues thrown to the winds as poor women play surrogate mothers   Right in the heart of this city, which found a place on the atlas as the Milk Capital of India, is a ‘fertility clinic-cum-hostel’ to house women who rent their wombs, mostly for foreign couples. The facility, which runs under the name Akanksha Fertility Clinic, caters for 30 surrogate mothers at any given point. Driven by poverty, the...

-PTI Faced with acute shortage of storage capacity, the Centre today asked states to lift PDS foodgrains needed for at least six months and build intermediate godowns to ease pressure on Food Corporation of India godowns. "We have requested state governments to offtake at least six months of foodgrains needed for PDS. Our storage capacity of FCI is 64 million tonnes and our present stock is about 82-83 million tonnes," Minister of...

Giving right to food is not enough to deliver food, say speakers at a conference on food security Agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan has called for setting up a body headed by the prime minister for effective execution of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) once it is enacted. All chief ministers should be members of this board, he added. NFSB was cleared by the Union Cabinet and introduced in Parliament in...

-The Telegraph The Lokpal bill faces further delay with the Rajya Sabha today referring it to a 15-member select committee by voice vote, but not before the Opposition accused the government of playing “games” and trying to bypass House business rules. The select committee, to be made up by members from various parties, is to hand in its report by the last week of the monsoon session. The BJP, CPM and the Bahujan...