The management of food and poverty in India is getting increasingly unreal. On the one hand, the country has a bumper harvest with every likelihood of the grain mountain to be procured adding to the existing mountain of official stocks. Without adequate storage space, a not-so-insignificant part of it will rot and go to waste. On the other hand, the government will not allow wheat exports until it is clear...

Who is a civil society member? This question, which has intrigued me for more than 20 years, came up again with the organization of the demonstrations in support of the lok pal bill in Delhi and other metropolitan cities. When I asked a friend who had been with the demonstrators at Jantar Mantar about the social composition of the gathering, he said that they were common people from every walk...

Sharad Pawar says many states had asked him not to ban the pesticide Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is rooting for endosulfan just before the fifth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets in Geneva from April 25 to April 30 to decide the fate of the pesticide. There seems to be a pattern in Pawar’s resistance to banning endosulfan. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on February...

A government-owned forensic laboratory has reported that a CD allegedly containing a conversation between former law minister Shanti Bhushan and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has not been tampered with, providing a further twist to a saga that has had Delhi's political class enthralled. An official, who has seen the report, told ET that the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) has concluded the recording was authentic, clear and continuous. "The...

Fresh allegations were made against the Bhushans on Wednesday after they declared their assets. Media reports are now alleging that Bhushans were allotted land by the Mayawati government. The allegations come even while Shanti Bhushan's son Jayant Bhushan was fighting a case against the UP govt and a case of conflict of interest is being made, according to Times Now. According to reports, the Bhushans didn't declare that a farmhouse given to...