-The Business Standard UN report shows holes in govt's food security proposal The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has worked out the cost of malnutrition to the world economy: about five per cent of its annual gross domestic product, or $3.5 trillion, in terms of foregone production and health expenditure. Even more important is the FAO's assessment of potential gains from investment in enhancing the nutritional standards of the population....

-The Hindustan Times The audacious ambush and bloody massacre of more than two dozen political leaders and their security guards in Darbha valley of Sukma district in south Chhattisgarh, raises again profoundly important questions about the legitimacy of violence as an instrument to battle injustice and oppression. Resistance to injustice is widely endorsed as the highest human duty in most cultures, but the debate is about the legitimacy of deploying violence in...

-The Business Standard Land acquisition in Chhattisgarh for a highway has triggered complaints of fraudulent land transfers It's difficult to imagine someone claiming your house to be his own, and selling it to a third party without you getting an inkling of it. But this seems to be a routine affair in Chhattisgarh. Village Teka in Pithora block of Mahasamund district has no Naxals. It is as normal as it can be. But...

-The Indian Express Digitisation of land records is a big step forward. Now to start guaranteeing titles While landlords across the country, several million of whom prefer to keep their houses locked up instead of renting them out, will cheer the cabinet clearance for the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, the even bigger change relates to the digitisation of land records. The real estate bill allows for the setting up of...

-Outlook The Maoists want a military conflict as it brings more adivasis into their fold. The Indian state's best bet is in ensuring that it wins over the aam adivasis to its side.   May 25th's condemnable attack by the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, which ended up killing and injuring over 50 people from Congress politicians to migrant adivasi labourers, cannot be understood without recognising the Maoist party's explicit political aims. These...