-The Hindu     While making grain available to all is important, it is equally essential to ensure that all food supplied for consumption remains unadulterated and uncontaminated. When India became independent, the Constitution declared it to be a socialist, secular, democratic Republic. The first fundamental right under the Constitution sets down that every citizen has a right to life. This has been interpreted by the highest court as every citizen's right to a...

-The Hindu The Election Commission might be well-intentioned in seeking to ban opinion polls in the run-up to an election, but the move does not seem to be sound in law, and is certainly not desirable in practice. The reasoning for a ban is that opinion polls influence voters prior to polling, and therefore the results of such polls should be withheld until after the end of voting. Needless to say,...

-The Hindu The foundational work done in the 1960s has made it possible for India to make access to food a legal right. But more needs to be done to sustain the progress. This is one of the most significant years in India's agricultural and national history. At Independence in 1947, we were suffering from acute food shortages that led to the introduction of food rationing. Later, we started depending on imported...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today hinted at allowing private FM and community radio stations to broadcast their own news and current affairs programmes, a privilege so far enjoyed only by the Centre-run All India Radio (AIR). "Only TV channels are allowed to broadcast news. Radio channels have access to every village, nook and corner. We will examine the issue. We will impose some conditions.... (before granting permission)," a bench...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Jupiter's gravity could be Rahul Gandhi's flourish, but "escape velocity" is a buzzword in macro economics and empowerment this year, figuring in the title of an influential paper by two Harvard economists studying racial inequality. In "Achieving escape velocity: Neighbourhood and school interventions to reduce persistent inequality", Harvard's Roland D Fryer and Lawrence F Katz examine policies that enable youth to "escape the gravitational pull of...