-Reuters   Cheap generic drugs were meant to change the life of Nandakhu Nissar, whose mouth is swollen by a cancerous tumour. But the cashless and hungry 55-year-old sleeps on a pavement staring up at the windows of Mumbai's biggest cancer hospital.  "What is a generic drug?" shrugs Nissar, who has travelled over 1,500 kms (900 miles) from his home in the hope of treatment. "I have borrowed money from friends and relatives...

-The Telegraph Annual expenses for the government’s food security programme have been estimated at Rs 112,205 crore, which will make it very difficult for the government to fulfill its commitments on checking fiscal deficit. Food and consumers affairs minister K.V. Thomas disclosed the massive bill on the programme today in the Rajya Sabha, though no mention of this was made in Friday’s Budget. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had just said he would foot...

-Rediff.com Opposition parties on Tuesday raised the issue of Planning Commission reducing the number of people living below the poverty line dubbing it as a ploy to deceive the poor. Soon after the Rajya Sabha met for the day, members from Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal-United, Bahujan Samaj Party, All India Anna Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam and the Left parties were on their feet seeking a discussion on the issue. Chairman Hamid Ansari said...

There are two messages, one good, the other, bad, in the latest poverty numbers released by the government. The good news first. It is obvious that poverty has declined in aggregate terms, both in rural and urban India. At a national level, it has declined by 7.4 percentage points from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10; rural poverty, over the same period, has declined from 41.8% to 33.8%, and urban...

Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who had recommended the suspension of operations at the Koodankulam nuclear power plant until people’s concerns had been allayed, said on Monday that work on the plant should resume immediately. The state cabinet based its decision on a report submitted last month by an expert committee that gave the project the all-clear, she said. “As per the state cabinet consensus, I (order) that the process for...