-The Hindu Despite its many flaws, the food security bill is an opportunity to end the leakages from the PDS and prevent wastage of public resources The National Food Security Bill, now an ordinance, has been a target of sustained attacks in the business media in recent weeks. There is nothing wrong, of course, in being critical of the bill, or even opposed to it. Indeed, the bill has many flaws. What...

-The Hindustan Times Nutrition and attendance, these are the two cornerstones in the drive for the universalisation of education. And it was precisely these two reasons that the scheme to provide mid-day meals (MDM) was launched in State-run schools. This way poor children would be encouraged to attend school regularly and second, they would receive adequate nutrition. But unfortunately, as two back-to-back incidents, the first in Bihar and the second in Rajasthan,...

-The Indian Express Noida (Uttar Pradesh): A 40-year-old man, who had allegedly taken on the sand mafia operating in his village, was shot dead at his residence in Raipur village in Sector 126, Noida, on Wednesday. Family members alleged that he was murdered as he had complained against a particular family engaged in illegal sand mining. The family also claimed that the mining was being done in the same area where suspended...

Ashish Bose coined the term BIMARU in a paper to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s to highlight the economic backwardness of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He tells Somesh Jha he is not inspired by the Planning Commission’s bogus poverty figures. He says it is time the commission wound up. Excerpts:   * You coined the term 'BIMARU', but these states performed well in alleviating poverty in...

-Outlook In the wake of the mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar, Centre has engaged the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to randomly test samples of food served as part of the scheme for quality and their protein and calorie content. In fact, the measure has already been implemented in Delhi and Andhra Pradesh and results are awaited of the first samples collected in the two states. Scientists from CSIR would be...