-Inclusion.in There is good news. And there’s bad news. The good news first. There’s been a bumper wheat crop and the granaries are overflowing. And the bad news? Where do we begin? A lot of that grain will rot. Millions will still remain hungry. Heavily in debt and distressed, farmers are committing suicide. Food prices are soaring. There’s more… Farmers don’t have money. Their land is too small and isn’t yielding much. Fertilisers and...

Jharkhand has proved it is both willing and able where disposing complaints related to physical disability is concerned. In the past three years (2008-11), the state received 10,095 complaints and disposed of 9,414 cases, a feat that has impressed none other than Mukul Balkrishna Wasnik, Union minister for social justice and empowerment. A two-day meet in New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, hosted by Union social justice and empowerment ministry, and starting from tomorrow,...

The new curriculum sought to overcome the visual baggage of old textbooks. Today, India debates whether or not cartoons should be included in school textbooks. Such debates are welcome to improve our understanding of school education in general, and textbooks in particular. But before the review committee throws all cartoons out of the school tub, it would help to understand a few facets of textbook preparation, especially the selection of visuals. Locating...

-The Hindu   Dr. Ahluwalia does not contradict a single fact in the article: (i) Rs.2.02 lakh daily average expenditure for trips between May and October 2011 (well after his “busy” G-20 period ending in 2010). No “gross extravagance”? (ii) 274 days abroad, or one in every nine. Factor in travel days and it could be one in seven away from office. (iii) 42 trips, half of them visits to the U.S. (several trips not...

-The Hindu Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, responds to P. Sainath: The article “The austerity of the affluent” (The Hindu, May 21, 2012), is so misleadingly distortive on two points that I feel compelled to clarify the position. I have high regard for your newspaper, and subscribe to the notion that there should be full transparency in government. It is in this spirit that I hope these clarifications...