The budget is a “mixed bag” for the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, said members. It promises to bring in the National Food Security bill that the Congress chief hopes will signpost UPA-II’s continuing commitment to social and economic inclusion in the way that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act did UPA-I. But finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s restatement of the Centre’s position on indexing MNREGA wages to the consumer price...

The Sonia Gandhi-led national advisory council (NAC) has won decisive victories in keeping at bay the governments attempt to regulate right to information and ensuring the pro-tribal Forest Rights Act is made more effective for its intended beneficiaries. On the national Food Security Act -- the third bone of contention between the government and NAC -- the Council at its meeting on Saturday held its ground and advocated a staggered...

The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) has managed to have its way on key demands on the food security bill. Bolstered by the Congress president’s “resolve”, the panel will go ahead and draft its own version of the bill and hope that Sonia’s veto will persuade the Centre to discard its stated objections and adopt the NAC’s draft as law. “Yeh tho hona hi hai,” Sonia reportedly said. A panel member...

WHILE old stocks of foodgrains which are contaminated and inedible are being given to adivasi areas through the public distribution system (PDS), the newer stocks are being kept for exports, Brinda Karat, member of parliament and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, told the union food minister K V Thomas on February 21. Showing to the minister the samples of contaminated rice collected from adivasi areas in Andhra Pradesh, she said inedible wheat...

The sharp rise in food prices inflation will remain a major cause of concern as inflationary pressures on the domestic front are likely to be exacerbated by higher levels of global commodity prices, the Economic Survey has said. It also indicated that the political turmoil in the Middle East and the “easy money” policy being followed by developed nations trying to jump-start their own economies after the global recession of 2008-09...