If we get it right, the Food Security Bill carries the potential to alter the destinies of millions of India's poor and disadvantaged people, by assuring them as a legal right sufficient food to live with dignity. It was approved by the Cabinet after over two years of intense, sometimes fractious debate. Opinion in the Cabinet itself was reportedly divided around the proposed law. Gaping divisions persist, even as the...

-The Times of India   Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday that opening up of the multi-brand retail sector to foreign investment was still on the "mind of the government" and it would be pursued once consensus emerged among political parties and other stakeholders. Mukherjee blamed lack of consensus among political parties for the government's inability to implement the reform measure but said it did not reflect the lack of intention or...

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion to ban Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) during farming season may not get government’s approval. Instead, the MGNREGA guidelines may be amended to increasing synergy between the world’s biggest social security scheme and agriculture sector to improve production. A set of green methodologies could be included in works allowed under the scheme. Pawar had written to Prime Minister on November 28 seeking the ban....

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has rejected Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion on modifying MGNREGA’s guidelines, saying it has not impacted the availability of workers for the Farm Sector. Ramesh has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that on the contrary it has led to major increase in farm wages and kind of works being executed with most of the works being taken up during the off-season periods. In reply to Pawar’s...

-The Hindu The government on Monday proposed the setting up of a parliamentary panel to go into the issue of farmer suicides in the wake of contradictory figures emerging from the States and the Union Home Ministry's National Crime Records Bureau. The suggestion came after the government was cornered in the Rajya Sabha, during the reply to the debate on the agrarian crisis, leading to two quick adjournments and a walkout by...