-The Hindu The hostility to the UPA's food security Bill from both its allies and the Opposition stems not from substantial objections to the draft law itself but from other political grouses The decision to bring an ordinance to provide food security to 67 per cent of the country's population was received with much hostility by the Opposition parties last week. The latter seemed surprised that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) could...

-DNA The Centre may have used the ordinance mode to push through with the Food Security Bill in the hope that this will bring political dividends but many of its stipulations will lead to serious challenges, even in a Cong-NCP ruled state like Maharashtra. On one hand, the total food grain availability in the state will go up from 3.95 lakh tonnes to 4.25 lakh tonnes, but only 75% from existing...

-The Times of India DEHRADUN: As if heart-wrenching images of children separated from their parents in the Uttarakhand disaster were not enough, state chief secretary Subhash Kumar on Wednesday is learnt to have told a four-member team of National Commission for Child Protection Rights that 1,227 children were reported missing in the state since the flashfloods. A top Uttarakhand IAS official told TOI that Kumar informed members of the visiting team that...

-The Economic Times If India is now debating opening the books and operations of political parties to the public, it's because of these six people who pulled strategic levers and applied relentless pressure. Soma Banerjee traces a four-year effort that converted intent to action Balwant Singh Khera, a politician from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, is not a name that will strike a chord in mainstream politics or social discourse today. It might in...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The government is not considering to amend the RTI Act to give immunity to political parties from providing information after the recent Central Information Commission's order brought them under the transparency law. Officials in the department of personnel and training (DoPT), which acts as nodal department for the implementation of RTI Act, said they have gone through the CIC's order and there was nothing that warranted their intervention. "If a...