-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The National Food Security Bill, which seeks to provide heavily-subsidized food to two-thirds of India's 1.23 billion people, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Much like what happened in the Lok Sabha last week, there was a scramble among political parties to garner populist brownie points even as they differed fiercely on certain provisions of the bill and their implementation. With the Congress all...
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Correct costs of the Food Security Bill-Bharat Ramaswami, Milind Murugkar and Ashok Kotwal
-The Financial Express Food Security Bill will raise the subsidy burden by 18%. The debate should be about the rise in costs of households due to leakages in PDS and price hike of other nutritious food items, and how these costs can be minimised by DBT In a recent article, Surjit Bhalla ("Manmonia's FSB: 3% of GDP", July 6, Financial Express-http://goo.gl/qoIbd3) has asserted that the Food Security Bill will cost 3% of...
More »The land Bill is pro-bureaucracy, anti-farmer-NC Saxena
-The Business Standard The process prescribed in the law is so cumbersome and time consuming that neither industry nor landowner will benefit Fast economic growth in the last two decades has increased demand for land from many sources, such as infrastructure, industry, mining, and urbanisation, including real estate. Even when these activities are funded privately and are driven by profit motive, they serve a social purpose since employment generation per unit of...
More »Talk about food - The coming battle over beneficiaries -Nitin Sethi
-The Hindu If the UPA believes it possesses one flagship that can help it sail through the electoral battle in 2014, it has to be the National Food Security Bill. The Congress's political messaging is certain to be built on its parenthood for a scheme that promises a nationwide legal right to food and nutrition for large numbers. But its hope of deriving political mileage from this law would be pitted against States...
More »CVC recorded 113% rise in graft-related plaints in 2012 -Josy Joseph
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Reflecting the larger national mood against corruption, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) saw a staggering jump of over 110% in the number of complaints received by the integrity institution last year. "The Commission received more than 37,000 complaints during 2012 as compared to 17,407 complaints in 2011 which is 113% more than that of previous year," says the annual CVC report. Among them were over...
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