"The Earth upon which the sea, and the rivers and waters, upon which food and the tribes of man have arisen, upon which this breathing, moving life exists, shall afford us precedence in drinking." - Prithvi Sukta, Atharva Veda Land is life. It is the basis of livelihoods for peasants and indigenous people across the Third World and is also becoming the most vital asset in the global economy. As the...

-The Times of India   The high drama over Baba Ramdev's midnight eviction and action against the peaceful gathering has shifted the focus away from the central is sue raised by the Baba – black money overseas – to the right to protest in a democracy. This being the case, there is danger of an uninformed debate on black money taking over, guided more by emotions and populist talk rather than...

Last week, a group of 40 economists wrote an open letter to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi arguing for cash transfer as a mode of delivery for the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). The letter was carried in detail in several newspapers including Mint. The good thing is that there is now almost a consensus, at least among economists, that whatever be the mode of delivery of subsidy,...

The food ministry has prepared a new food security bill, reworking an earlier version and reconciling what had been “promised to the people” by the ruling Congress and the government’s fiscal constraints, MoS for agriculture KV Thomas has told HT. In August last year, the UPA government had pulled the plug on a previous draft, after it was found wanting by the Congress leadership. The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, which oversees...

How effective are India's innumerable social security programmes at reaching out to the poorest of the poor? If a recent World Bank report is anything to go by, they are woefully inefficient. According to the report, titled "Social Protection for a Changing India", leakages and exclusion errors are endemic across the country. For instance, just 27% of the PDS . beenficiaries are the poorest of the poor. The World Bank found...