The 28th of May, marked as “World Hunger Day,” has come and gone but for Pannu Bai Bhil, every day is hunger day. How does someone dealing with chronic hunger view a day marking her plight? Let those of us who overeat at least take stock of a hungry India pitted against bumper crops, number crunching, technologies for profit, markets, and growth rates. The solution for hunger lies in proper...

The marginalisation of tribals in the last few decades has been enormous. Tribals have lost out in agriculture, and their forests also stand depleted, writes KD Singh In 2006, the Prime Minister described the Maoist threat as “the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by the country” and suggested development in insurgency-affected regions as the key remedy. In 2009, the Union Government announced a new nationwide initiative, the ‘Integrated Action...

Giving right to food is not enough to deliver food, say speakers at a conference on food security Agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan has called for setting up a body headed by the prime minister for effective execution of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) once it is enacted. All chief ministers should be members of this board, he added. NFSB was cleared by the Union Cabinet and introduced in Parliament in...

The district administration's plan of giving priorities to digging of wells under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has started bearing fruits. The scheme has brought smiles to hundreds of farmers across the district. Official records show that the farmers have doubled their income by growing crops in about 7,200 acres in all seasons. Many farmers like Mahli Oraon at Rampur village of Sadar block shared their success...

C Rangarajan, chairman of the PM's economic advisory council, on Friday hinted at price corrections in both diesel and cooking gas over the next few months to send a strong signal to foreign investors and to ensure adequate capital flows. "I think it is necessary to act on prices of other petroleum products also," he told TOI. Rangarajan, a former RBI governor, said there was a proposal on dual pricing...