-Reuters Raipur/Patna: The deaths of at least 23 children who were poisoned after eating a free school meal has triggered an outcry over food safety just as the ruling Congress party is set to launch an ambitious plan to feed 800 million poor, with an eye on elections due within a year. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi‘s national subsidised food project includes free school meals and expands existing handouts to make it probably...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: Nearly four months after the Samajwadi Party government started distributing free laptops to students in line with Akhilesh Yadav's poll promise, over 4.4 lakh devices worth over Rs 830 crore still lie in government godowns exposed to dirt and rain water as the chief minister struggles to get time to distribute them himself. The chief minister has so far been able to distribute only 79000 laptops...

-The Hindu The hostility to the UPA's food security Bill from both its allies and the Opposition stems not from substantial objections to the draft law itself but from other political grouses The decision to bring an ordinance to provide food security to 67 per cent of the country's population was received with much hostility by the Opposition parties last week. The latter seemed surprised that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) could...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Agriculture output is poised to accelerate and power deficits will narrow as the monsoon has begun bountifully in its first month, irrigating fields and filling up reservoirs with the heaviest June rainfall in more than a decade. Rainfall has been 32% above normal in June, injecting moisture into fields and preparing them for early sowing of kharif crops and reducing the farmer's need for electricity or diesel...

-The Hindu This year, the monsoon has been in rumbustious form. It swept in to Kerala on June 1 and then headed off north with surprising rapidity. So much so that the rain-bearing cloud systems covered the whole country by June 16, a process that is typically completed only by around the middle of next month. Moreover, it has rained copiously. Consequently, about three-quarters of the country have received much...