-Live Mint     Gujarat has grown faster than the national average—a point worth noting. But there’s no need for drumbeats  Gujarat's economic performance has been facing great scrutiny ever since chief minister Narendra Modi emerged as one of the top prime ministerial candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I have been asked to compare Gujarat's economic performance during the past decade with that in the past and separate fact from fiction...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has disapproved of the process the Planning Commission and the Centre follow to identify below poverty line (BPL) people, adding to the recent controversy over a 15 per cent reduction in poverty. The standing committee on finance, headed by the BJP's Yashwant Sinha, has outlined flaws in the methodology followed by the Planning Commission and the government to identify the poor. The measure is key...

-One World South Asia The mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar has drawn attention directly to the way we articulate and work for educational entitlements, writes Parvinder Singh and Priyanka Sarkar. Lucknow: It takes an informed and empowered community to harvest the fruits of educational entitlements, including non-discriminatory access to midday meals. The promises made in the Right to Education Act can only be wrested as rights when they are owned by the...

-The Indian Express The proposed bill makes false promises. The need is to directly address problems of drinking Water Availability, sanitation, maternal health and childcare The Food Security Bill (2013, FSB) promulgated recently by an ordinance is expected to be debated in Parliament soon. The intention behind the FSB is noble, to eradicate hunger from the country, but the means adopted need serious reconsideration. FSB, under the targeted public distribution system (TPDS),...

-The Hindu Kolar (Karnataka): "I have kept one and a half acres ready for sowing ragi. However, there is neither rain nor humidity conducive for sprouting of the seeds," T.M. Venkatesh, a farmer in Toorandahalli under Jannaghatta gram panchayat limits in Kolar taluk, said. The story of Munivenkatappa, another farmer at Doddurkarupanahalli in Bangarpet taluk, is no different. Though he sowed ragi on one acre, his hopes were dashed when the skies...