The amount of rural reportage in the Indian media remains far too low, with even important stories such as those on farmer suicides tending to be ignored. One of the outspoken critics of this trend has been P Sainath, rural-affairs editor of The Hindu and 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. He was also the journalist who originally broke the story on...
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Govt must not ignore the food security of its people by Tina Edwin
Despite recording robust economic growth over the last couple of decades and spending thousands of crores of rupees on subsidising foodgrain and other programmes aimed at improving the nation’s social indicators, India ranks a low 67 among 84 countries on the Global Hunger Index, 2010. The country has actually dropped two levels since last year on the index published jointly by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe and Concern...
More »Land reforms, bataidari' tops Left agenda by Arun Kumar
The newly floated Left Front, comprising CPI, CPM and CPI-ML (Liberation), is contesting the state assembly polls on the plank of land reforms and "bataidari (sharecropping)". The leaders of the three parties made a joint appeal to the people at the Janshakti Bhawan here on Sunday to vote for Left candidates in view of the fact that the Congress, RJD and NDA had failed to deliver the goods. CPI national executive member...
More »Buddhaism:Invest in Bengal but run slow; turn to agri
Want to invest in West Bengal? Try agriculture—that was the message from chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to captains of industry at a CII National Council meeting here on Wednesday. At a roundtable with industry heads, including ITC chairman YC Deveshwar, Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej and Pepsico India chairman Sanjeev Chadha, the Bengal chief minister shed his aggressive stance on industry, visible in the run-up to Singur, and said corporates...
More »Open to scrutiny by V Venkatesan
A landmark ruling by the Central Information Commission raises hopes that government functioning will become more transparent. ON August 30, a three-member Bench of the Central Information Commission (CIC), New Delhi, gave a ruling that has the potential to bring under public scrutiny crucial aspects of the functioning of the Central and State governments that have remained hidden from the public glare all these years. The Bench, comprising Chief Information...
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