Accelerating the process of framing a National Food Security Bill, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday convened a high-level meeting with his senior Cabinet colleagues to discuss aspects of the Bill and the recommendations made by the National Advisory Council (NAC).At the centre of the discussions was a letter written by NAC chairperson Sonia Gandhi to the Prime Minister on merging the Rural Development Ministry's exercise for identification of the...

The experts group, chaired by chief of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council C. Rangarajan, set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine the recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on the proposed National Food Security Bill, will hold its first meeting here on Friday. Even as the NAC is formulating the draft Bill, the experts group will examine the proposals and come up with its suggestions. A meeting of...

Led by C. Rangarajan, it has been appointed by Manmohan In a significant move, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has formed an experts group chaired by the chief of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, C. Rangarajan, to examine the recommendations of the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council on the proposed food security Bill. The move surprised members of the council who met here on Friday to discuss the draft of the National Food...

NAC failed to address hunger and malnutrition: Right to Food Campaign Current proposals only offer window-dressing to present Targeted Public Distribution System Arguments suggesting lack of resources cannot be accepted, wrote Campaign members The Right to Food Campaign activists are “extremely disappointed” with the recommendations of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on the proposed Food Security Bill and have said they would continue their struggle for a Comprehensive Food Security Act. Urging the NAC...

The poster boy of microfinance is now seeking some anonymity. In Andhra Pradesh, the epicentre of the worst crisis faced by microfinance in India, SKS Microfinance is playing down its identity and going into preservation mode. At its modest office in a residential colony in Warangal district, India’s largest microfinance company has taken down its board. At its head office in upmarket Begumpet in Hyderabad, it hung a cloth mesh...