-Al Jazeera   The reforms promoted by Prime Minister Singh do not go far enough to help food production and the hungry. The debate on the Food Security Act is based on myths on both sides. The government is propagating the myth that it is the largest anti-poverty and anti-hunger programme ever introduced anywhere in the world. The programme is being heralded as Sonia Gandhi's dream project, and billed as a miracle solution...

-PTI Ghaziabad: The police arrested seven persons from the Siyani gate area in Ghaziabad yesterday for allegedly organising betting on vegetable prices. According to the police, the seven duped people by issuing a likely rate card of vegetable prices for the next day. The seven accused - Kuldeep, Pradeep, Krishan Kumar, Anil Kumar, Dinesh, Mahender and Janaradan - all aged between 20 and 30, were arrested late last night and efforts are on...

-The Hindu The huge deficit in blood availability outside urban centres must jolt the government into legalising unbanked blood supply Twenty-year-old Putul, living in a village 70 km from a district headquarters town in Chhattisgarh, had been in labour for two days and a night. It was her first pregnancy. In order to hasten labour, the local quack administered several injections that increased her uterine contractions. Forty hours after the onset of...

-The Hindu India should take its cue from Brazil and invest in ethanol as a viable commercial substitute for costly petrol The public and media were outraged recently after a suggestion that petrol stations could be closed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. to curb consumption. Oil import is the heaviest burden on India's foreign exchange, at $144 billion last year. The situation could get worse, given the potential for an increase...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government touted petrol as rich man's fuel to stop subsidy. But a latest survey shows 62% of the fuel flowing into the market is consumed by the aam aadmi's sawari - two-wheelers - while about 2% is being sold loose by people to earn their livelihood in remote villages and coastal areas. The survey, conducted by Nielsen for the oil ministry's think-tank - Petroleum...