-BBC   The death toll in a swine flu outbreak in India since the beginning of this year has risen to 21, officials say. Most of the deaths have been reported from the western state of Maharashtra. Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have also reported deaths. Over 300 others have been infected with the virus, and many of them admitted to hospitals. The cause of the sudden outbreak is not clear. The virus killed more...

The Union Cabinet is likely to consider a proposal that seeks to do away with the requirement to disclose one's religious affiliation for registration of marriages as well as the demand of Sikh bodies that their marriages be registered under a separate law.  The move has been prompted by the consideration to help those opting for inter-faith marriages, along with the need to make registration of marriages a simpler affair.  It is...

Between March 10 and March 17 this year, troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the CRPF's special Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), and the Chhattisgarh Police's Special Task Force entered Abujmard: a 6,000 sq.km expanse of uncharted forest described, by some, as a liberated territory controlled by guerilla forces of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Security forces have arrested 13 villagers suspected of belonging to the banned...

-The Wall Street Journal These days, Indian policymakers are debating how to create a vast new food entitlement program. There is talk of poor households struggling to cope with high food prices and malnourishment among their children. What you don’t hear much about, however, is the most tragic and outrageous consequence of India’s failure to feed its people adequately: starvation deaths. India is a nation that prides itself on having been self-sufficient in...

In the mid-eighties there was a rumour which later turned out to be true: US livestock were being fed with foodgrains in order to ensure better quality of their meat. Later it proved to be corn and not fine cereals like wheat and rice. The Indian intelligentsia was appalled and indignant: How come cows and buffaloes were fed with grains while millions of people continued to live below the poverty line...