Every passing day makes it clear that the proposed food security law may not come by for a while. One report quoting the Planning Commission even suggested that it can be expected only in 2012. This Twelfth Plan (2012-17) launch has support from the concerned dual Ministry of Agriculture as well as Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. In that eventuality it does mean a surge in food insecurity.A dispassionate...

India continued to be the largest recipient of remittances in 2010, with the figure rising from $49.6 billion in 2009 to $55 billion. It was also the country with the second largest number of emigrants (those migrating abroad) after Mexico, according to the World Bank's just-released Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011. Interestingly, even as 11.4 million people from India went abroad, 5.4 million came into the country, making India No. 10...

The Niira Radia tapes have firmly put  the spotlight of adverse attention on politics and the media. But surprisingly, the loudest voice of protest—which is also a claim of innocence and a warning that the focus on the mud-smeared keeps attention off the real beasts in the 2G story—has come from India Inc. Ratan Tata, head of the Tata group and Radia’s foremost client, calls the leaked tapes “unauthorised” and...

Bangladeshi micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank has described as "total fabrication" claims the institution diverted nearly $100m of aid cash.The denial came a day after Norway said it was examining reports relating to money from Norway, Sweden and Germany.A documentary alleged that the cash had been transferred from Grameen Bank to other parts of Grameen.Nobel Peace laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus set up the bank in Bangladesh in 1996 to make small...

While survivors of the Bhopal gas leak disaster have been demanding that Dow Chemical, the current owner of the Union Carbide Corporation, be held liable for the clean-up of the disaster site, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry granted approval to a project involving Reliance Petroleum Ltd and Dow Global even after apprehensions were expressed by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. It now appears that the approval, granted shortly...