At August 30 meet, it was felt there should be a system of two prices, differential entitlements Since then, NAC Working Group on Food Security has had detailed discussions The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) may be close to finalising the contentious Food Security Bill when it meets here on September 24. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and officials from Ministries concerned, including Women and Child Development Secretary, will be...

A vast swath of land in north India battled swirling flood water as the toll in heavy rains in the region rose to 93 with reports of more deaths from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Uttar Pradesh accounted for nine more deaths, while 67 persons lost their lives in the incessant rains during the past few days. Thousands others have been rendered homeless in the hill state. In Uttar Pradesh, three persons died...

India has long been simultaneously a country of enormous wealth and desperate poverty. In recent decades, the distance has only grown between those who enjoy living standards comparable to the finest in the world, and the millions left far behind. Even as Indians crowd the lists of the world’s richest dollar billionaires, an estimated 200 million people sleep hungry. Half our children are malnourished and nearly a fifth severely so....

The flood situation worsened further in the western districts of Uttar Pradesh with the death of four more persons in rain related incidents even as around 177 villages of Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit and Shahajanpur were inundated. Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has arrived here to undertake an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas, officials said. "The Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who this morning undertook a tour of flood and cloudburst hit...

Unfortunate though it may seem, many Indians only identify with Ladakh because of the popularity of Three Idiots and the progressive school there which Aamir Khan has now gone to assist. We tend to forget that it is part of Jammu and Kashmir because the unrest in the valley obscures everything else. Ladakh is often described as a cold desert, with scanty rainfall, which is why Leh and its environs were...