The National Food Security Bill, 2011, designed to make access to food a legal right, is the last chance to convert Gandhiji's vision of a hunger-free India into reality. What Mahatma Gandhi said of the role of food in a human being's life in a 1946 speech at Noakhali, now in Bangladesh, remains the most powerful expression of the importance of making access to food a basic human right. Gandhiji also...

-PTI   The UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani today asserted that the authority set up for issuing national identity cards was working under the powers delegated by the Prime Minister. "My powers have been delegated by the Prime minister," Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nilekani said when asked whether the authority was on a collision course with the Planning Commission. "We are an Attached office of the Planning Commission and by series...

-The Hindu   The Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has launched an ambitious project to improve personal hygiene among women with the launch of a project to manufacture low-cost sanitary napkins. Ten members of the Isiri Self-Help Group (SHG) at Layla village of Belthangady taluk were trained by an NGO to manufacture sanitary napkins with cotton made from wood pulp. The sanitary napkins were less than half an inch thick and were called Safety...

Genetically modified (GM) pest-resistant crops may not be the panacea they are made out to be, a new study shows, with specific reference to Bt cotton. The field trial by scientists in Nagpur shows that the soil the plants are grown in matters almost as much as insect-killing genes and pesticide sprays. The finding could significantly increase the amount of money farmers spend in buying and spraying pesticides. It could also mean...

-The Economic Times   The Planning Commission has raised questions about the administrative structure of the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) and called for the appointment of an independent financial advisor to monitor its finances and transactions, days after the finance ministry rejected the authority's Rs 15,000 crore funding proposal. "The UIDAI's present system represents a major departure from government procedures and removes all inbuilt checks and balances. We...