-Down to Earth The most controversial aspect of the food security law is the restructuring of the public distribution system to cover an unprecedented 67 per cent of the population, most of them in the poorer states. LATHA JISHNU, JYOTIKA SOOD and SUCHITRA M explain why there are winners and losers in the new dispensation and how states with better PDS will have to find huge resources to keep their numbers...

-The New York Times Blog The right to food is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming national elections in 2014, political parties are competing to demonstrate - or at least proclaim - their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts. The rhetoric, however, is not always matched by understanding...

-The Business Standard The right to food is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming general elections, parties are competing to demonstrate - or at least proclaim - their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts. The food security Bill is a modest initiative. It consolidates various food-related programmes and...

-The Indian Express In March, a task force on disaster management set up by the government in 2011 submitted its report, suggesting sweeping changes to the Disaster Management Act, 2005. But it did not get much attention. It took the devastation of Uttarakhand for the home ministry to take a serious look at the report. The task force, led by former NDMA secretary P K Mishra, suggested that the NDMA, which...

-The Times of India The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) faced its sharpest indictment in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, with a senior official's visit to the CBI office to scan and suggest changes to an investigation report on Coalgate attracting the court's severe ire. The court's scathing comments on Shatrughna Singh, a joint secretary in the PMO, and Ashok Bhalla, a joint secretary in the coal ministry, seeking changes in a draft...