The low rate of inflation of 3.88 percent in Consumer Food Price Index during September, 2015 actually hides the high prices at which various pulses (dal) are available in kirana / retail shops across India. In terms of Consumer Price Index (combined), monthly rate of inflation in pulses and products during September 2015 (over September last year) stood at 29.76 percent as compared to the overall monthly retail inflation of...

-Economic and Political Weekly Independence of the judiciary is not the issue in the current stand-off; it is control over appointments. The decision of the Supreme Court striking down the Constitution 99th Amendment and the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) marks a high confrontation level between the executive and the judiciary. One of the first actions of the Narendra Modi government was to bring into being the NJAC to make appointments to...

-Economic and Political Weekly India needs to find an optimal patenting regime that will safeguard incentives for innovation while simultaneously ensuring that medicines are available at reasonable prices. Viswanath Pingali (viswanath@iimahd.ernet.in) is at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Chirantan Chatterjee (chirantan@gmail.com) is at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. We gratefully acknowledge several discussions with Kensuke Kubo. Please click here to access the article. ...

Recently meat sale and consumption was banned in five BJP-ruled states of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat on the pretext of not hurting the religious sentiments of Jain community during Paryushan festival. Earlier this year, beef consumption and sale was banned in Maharashtra with the passage of Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995. A few days back, a Muslim man named Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a Hindu mob...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Integrated Child Development Services scheme and maternity entitlements can play a crucial role in improving children's food and nutrition security. Both interventions are part of the National Food Security Act, though maternity entitlements have yet to be activated. Odisha has experimented with several creative policies, including initiating a maternity entitlements scheme in 2011 before the NFSA was enacted, introduction of eggs and decentralised procurement of take-home...