-Down to Earth The most controversial aspect of the food security law is the restructuring of the public distribution system to cover an unprecedented 67 per cent of the population, most of them in the poorer states. LATHA JISHNU, JYOTIKA SOOD and SUCHITRA M explain why there are winners and losers in the new dispensation and how states with better PDS will have to find huge resources to keep their numbers...

-The Hindu     While denying voting rights to undertrials contradicts the principle that a person is innocent until proved guilty, disenfranchising convicts will aggravate their alienation from society The Supreme Court's decision last month in Chief Election Commissioner v. Jan Chaukidar has attracted significant attention for its perceived potential to address the criminalisation of politics. Justices A.K Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhaya ruled that since one of the conditions to be a candidate under...

-DNA Ordinance promulgated by UPA rules out aid during calamities - natural or man-made. Even as the food security ordinance became part of the statute book after presidential assent on Friday, the Congress and government allayed fears of the law having any effect on the financial management of the country. Armed with figures, Congress chief spokesman Ajay Maken along with food minister KV Thomas explained that the scheme, which entailed merging of...

-The Hindu Vinod Jain lives in a sprawling landscaped farmhouse on the outskirts of the city, an area that is an exclusive address; not far from this posh neighbourhood lives Amin Mohammad in a shanty amid rubble and refuse on land illegally occupied. And the only thing common between the two households otherwise at the two ends of an economic spectrum is that with no source of municipal water in their neighbourhoods...

-Tehelka The National Food Security Act is probably going to undergo many changes before it is presented in Parliament. But everyone seems to agree that it’s time has come Towards the end of January, a few days after Republic Day and a little over a week after the Congress’s conclave in Jaipur, large half-page advertisements appeared in major newspapers: “Celebrating the 63rd year anniversary of our Republic by putting food on everybody’s...