If Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s indication that 35 kg of foodgrain a family and the Tendulkar committee estimate of 8.3 crore BPL households could be the basis of the national food security Act, then the government’s bill adds up to a staggering Rs 63,750 crore a year. At 25 kg a BPL family, it is slightly less at Rs 54,200 crore, which is roughly the food subsidy...

The countdown for implementation of the historic Right to Education Act from April 1 has begun. Complete with a new message - `elementary education of equitable quality is now the right of every child' - and a short awareness film, HRD minister Kapil Sibal has asked chief ministers to cooperate in universalising elementary education. Though Sibal has chosen to launch RTE from Delhi instead of some educationally deprived state, his...

* State-promoted organic farming has picked up in a big way in Andhra Pradesh * The CMSA programme was initiated in 2004 across a mere 400 acres in 12 villages. * Today, it covers 17 lakh acres in over 4,000 villages in the state. The number of farmers participating in CMSA has risen to more than 6 lakh. Call it going back to the roots. Or call it giving the...

This report is sure to come as a shocker for all those who thought the worst was over after believing that the recession is petering out. The recently released World Economic Situation and Prospects 2010 (WESP) of the United Nations (UN), predicts that the economic growth in the developing world will remain well below the pre-crisis pace of more than 7 per cent per annum. China’s and India’s economies are...

Is there a breakdown of rule of law and the Constitutional order in Chhattisgarh? Some of India’s most respected civil society organisations certainly think so, though the State Government disagrees. Several citizens’ organisations have written to the authorities, the courts and even the Prime Minister, about police excesses during the ongoing Operation Green-hunt that the government forces, their paramilitaries and vigilantes have waged on the armed Maoists. (See links below)...