-The Hindu The expenditure on providing food security will add minimally to India's public spending which is less than what even lower middle income Asian countries spend on social protection In recent media coverage, critics often argue that the cost of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) is excessive. The Economic Times referred to the NFSB as a "money guzzling measure" and according to CNBC-TV18, Rahul Bajaj, chair of Bajaj Auto, said...

-The Hindu     Women are essential for the success of schemes like the mid-day meal programme. Improving their wages and working conditions would be better than blaming them when things go wrong. Mahatma Gandhi once declared, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." By this yardstick, India does not fare well. Consider recent headlines alone: 23 Bihari children die after eating poisoned midday meals at their schools. Six-year-old...

-The Hindu Hard-working rig-operators are providing a real response to a very real demand from farmers, but with grave consequences for groundwater supplies No other town can boast as deep a connection with the rest of the country as this little one in Tamil Nadu. Machines from here have struck great depths in most Indian States (and in many African countries as well). Tiruchengode is the nation's borewell rig capital and thousands...

-The Times of India The ongoing 'Bhagwati versus Sen' debate has generated more heat than light, necessitating correction. As an equal co-author of India's Tryst with Destiny, which defines the Bhagwati position, my stake in the debate is second to none. Two extreme characterisations of the positions of the two sides have emerged. The first has it that the differences between them are minimal with each side expressing the same ideas in...

-The Hindu Making the Gross Domestic Product the sole measure of national development for many years has left Indians with a natural environment that is among the most polluted in the world. Regardless of that dismal outcome, and in spite of settled law that polluters should pay, the Centre and State governments continue to balk at stronger enforcement of environmental laws. New evidence from a study by the Tata Institute of...