Is drought being used as an excuse to delay the national Food Security Act? An informal network of organizations and individuals involved in the Right to Food Campaign believe so. The campaign groups are demanding that a national consultative process on an improved draft bill must be started immediately so that the proposed Food Security Act could be passed as soon as possible. The campaigners also demand that exports of...

Women will soon occupy half the seats in urban local bodies with the Union cabinet on Thursday clearing a proposal for raising reservation for them in municipalities from 33% at present. This provision will apply to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election, offices of chairpersons and seats and offices of chairpersons reserved for SCs and STs. The increased representation of women is likely to have...

Rapid urbanization is placing significant stress on the budgets of India's local governments and more must be done to improve their financial status to enable them to fund infrastructure projects and delivery of essential services. To address the issue, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to a request from the Government of India to support a study to assess the state of India's local government finances and identify key...

Calcutta, Oct 20: The CPM central committee appears to have underestimated the decline in the party’s vote in Bengal in the Lok Sabha polls last May. The final poll data compiled by the National Election Study (NES) now shows that the decline in the party’s — and the Left Front’s — vote was sharper than what had been calculated earlier. Also, the erosion was spread across all social groups, including...

Energy security is a major objective of all countries. Some are proactive and aggressive in this pursuit, like China; others like India are slow and procrastinate on major decisions and allow hope to overtake realistic assessments. This makes energy security in the foreseeable future an uncertain goal for India. Any discussion of energy security must keep in mind the Indian realities. Although in overall terms of commercial energy use to...