-Outlook New Delhi: Over five lakh families in Delhi will be provided food grains initially under the ambitious food security programme which will be launched here on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who has already announced that Delhi will be the first city to roll out the scheme, today held lengthy meeting with top brass of her government to finalise modalities to...

-The New York Times Blog The right to food is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming national elections in 2014, political parties are competing to demonstrate - or at least proclaim - their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts. The rhetoric, however, is not always matched by understanding...

-The Hindu In a region of poor yields, a gritty woman farmer succeeds even in years of crop failure. But high costs are depleting Vidarbha's success stories "I am the farmer, he did no farming. He only moons over his cattle, he loves those cows (even if they yield just a litre of milk each). Men hang around the village, women are in the fields." Leelabai is speaking of one of Yavatmal's most...

-The Telegraph Agartala: Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar has criticised the Centre for promulgating the food security ordinance by evading parliamentary scrutiny and termed it a "nutrition destruction ordinance". Asserting that the provisions in the ordinance would only accentuate the rural-urban divide and destroy whatever food security people of this country now have, Sarkar said, "We had received a copy of the ordinance and conveyed our opinion to the Centre, demanding intensive...

-The Economic Times It is scandalous that inflation in cereals remains above 17 per cent even as food grain stocks with the Centre are close to 80 million tonnes. The Committee on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) paper estimates that the buffer stocking requirement would go up, thanks to the Food Security law, but not higher than 41.5 million as of July 1. The rest is excess. The government must sell off...