-The Hindu BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh is the face of the reformed public distribution system in Chhattisgarh and indeed, he is still banking on it for a third consecutive term despite the anti-incumbency factor against several MLAs and a few ministers in his council. In his recent vikas yatra, he showcased development and focussed on the path-breaking Public Distribution System (PDS) reforms that were dovetailed into the Chhattisgarh Food security Act...

India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Panchayat officials often fob off people seeking work under the rural job guarantee scheme, keeping the programme's implementation poor in states such as Bengal and Assam, the Centre believes. Delhi has now asked the states to get their gram panchayat offices to organise a Rozgar Diwas (Employment Day) at every ward every month, where work applications will be submitted and recorded at a public meeting. Such gatherings will...

-Institute of Economic Growth This paper focusses on two Indian laws that seek to guarantee socioeconomic rights: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), an important example of India's recent history of legislation of social and economic rights, and the proposed National Food security Act (NFSA), currently in Parliament. Various means of democratic politics, including a ten-year old public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court and public mobilisation through the...

-Outlook Shimla: National Agriculture Bank And Rural Development has launched a Warehousing Scheme (NWS) to advance loans to Public and Private sector for creation of storage infrastructure with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore during 2013-14. "A dedicated scheme for providing assistance for creation of storage infrastructure with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore has been introduced, pursuant to announcement made by Union Finance minister in current year's budget and the scheme...