It’s been raining “rights” in Indian policy for the last few years — education, work, food, service, healthcare, and much else. This “Diet Coke” approach to poverty reduction — the sweetness without the calories — was always dangerous because of unknown side effects. Commenting in 1790 on the consequences of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke said: “They have found their punishment in their success. Laws overturned, tribunals subverted, industry without...

-The Indian Express   Great expectations are pinned to the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, given the sheer volume of unfinished legislative business, and the amazing free fall of the past few months. The opposition’s passive-aggressive behaviour and the government’s reflexive obduracy over a JPC were the reason the winter session had to be written off, and that certainly contributed to the clear authority vacuum of recent months, even as agitations...

Kerala has not been very successful in the past to consistently attract big-ticket investments . The absence of strategic investments in key sectors has always been a hurdle in the state's path to economic prosperity. The new chief ministerOommen Chandy, known for speedy decision-making , wants to change this scenario. He has already been able to swing public opinion in his favour by addressing long-pending issues such as the Smart...

-The Business Standard   Food security cannot be ensured by FCI and the existing PDS Successive drafts of the food security Bill seem to agree on one thing: a greater role for the Food Corporation of India (FCI). FCI buys grains at the minimum support price and distributes them through fair price shops and other food-related schemes like midday meals in schools and children’s nutrition as part of the Integrated Child Development Services....

The Right to Information Act was the great white hope of Indian citizens who are consistently denied rightful information. Not only does it specify that most information in the public domain would be provided to citizens by right, but it also ensured that failure to do so by the bloated bureaucracy would result in penalties for erring officials. Trust the government, though, to subvert its own good intentions. The state government has...