-Outlook Itanagar: In pursuance of the Centre's initiative to ensure food for all, Arunachal Pradesh today launched the National Food Security Ordinance (NFSO) 2013 commemorating the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi. As per the provisions of the Ordinance, a person belonging to priority households would be entitled to receive 5 kg of food grains per person per month at subsidised price. Supply of rice is to be made available to the eligible persons...

-The Hindu MADURAI: Muthumari's day starts at 4 a.m. She milks her cows in the cowshed behind the house and keeps cans of milk ready to be collected by a pickup van from a private dairy company. Then she turns to her household chores and sends her children off to school. Packing the day's food for herself, she proceeds towards the fields in her village at Udayanpatti. She is not just a...

-The Business Standard As the southwest monsoon enters the last leg of its four-month journey, 2013 will be remembered as one of the best years in overall quantum and distribution of rainfall across India. More than expected rain so far have pushed up kharif sowing in a big way, which will not only add its bit to gross domestic product (GDP) growth but blunt inflationary pressures. If the intensity is maintained, India...

-The Hindu R.P. Gupta, Principal Secretary to Government of Gujarat, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, writes: "In Gujarat, PDS is exclusionary, leaky, getting worse" (August 17), your Correspondent Rukmini S., mainly focuses on the alleged weakness of the Gujarat Public Distribution System based on old data. It is clear that she has not countered any of the points raised by the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The article mentions some analysis of...

-Economic and Political Weekly India has claims to many firsts, some on the wrong side; one being the highest proportion of malnourished children in the world, higher than several of the poorer Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Panagariya (2013) hypothesises that it is the flawed measurement methodology which is responsible for the reported high prevalence of malnutrition in Indian children (p 98). He further avers that Indian children may never attain the...