-Business Standard Sensible suggestions from Shanta Kumar panel on food security The Shanta Kumar committee on food sector reforms has made a slew of recommendations - many of which, even if controversial, make sense. Apart from suggesting downsizing of the unwieldy, inefficient and corruption-ridden Food Corporation of India (FCI) by outsourcing many of its tasks to the states and other public- and private-sector bodies, the panel has laid out certain amendments to...

-The Hindu While liberalisation's backers are not squeamish in admitting that democracy is an impediment to the free market economic model, farmers who are dispossessed of land argue that they are undercompensated and that the profit of private companies is not a public purpose Since it was passed by Parliament in September 2013, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR) has been criticised from...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prices of most food items have been inching up relentlessly through the past year despite several so-called reforms in management of food supply chains. While staples like wheat flour and rice have become marginally costlier, prices of pulses like masoor and arhar have soared by up to 30%. Barring a few exceptions, prices of vegetables and fruits have shot up by 20 to 50%, and...

-The Financial Express Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have reported sharp falls in grain leakages through public distribution system (PDS) during the period between 2004-05 and 2011-12, according to an assessment by development economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera. In Chhattisgarh, which took several measures such as digitisation of beneficiaries lists, fair-price shops and GPS tracking of foodgrain carrying trucks, the estimated grain leakage has reduced to only 9.3% in 2011-12 from 51.8%...

-Livemint.com Technology can help India to quickly deliver long pending reforms More than a billion people around the world have emerged out of extreme poverty over the past two decades thanks to the surge in growth rates in countries such as China after they embraced free-market policies. Last week, billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates made a stunning claim in the latest edition of their annual letter: the lives of people living...