Bizarre are the ways of the government when it comes to managing, or mismanaging, the country’s food economy. On the one hand, it goes on mopping up bulk of the wheat and rice arriving in the mandis to build up its grain stocks, clearly to prevent foodgrain prices from falling below the minimum support price (MSP) level. On the other hand, it plans to offload 3 million tonnes of wheat...

Businessmen and society have a strangely contradictory relationship. The economic activity they generate can be an agent of social transformation and progress — a quick look at the changes in Indian society in the last two decades would be one indicator. Yet, businessmen in themselves are rarely conscious promoters of social progress. This is hardly unexpected. Business inherently seeks a stable environment in which to flourish, so businessmen tend not to...

The RTI juggernaut has begun to roll over Indian babudom. Let us not turn the clock back. Over the past week, there have been reports that the Prime Minister's Office, responding to Sonia Gandhi's muscular intervention, is backing off on the dreaded amendments to the Right to Information Act, 2005. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that the amendments scare has never been too far away. It resurfaced as recently...

Better care for babies during the first month after they are born is key to reducing child mortality rates in developing countries, the United Nations health agency said today, in an update on measures that are essential for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). An estimated 40 per cent of deaths of children under the age of five occur in the first month of life, most in the...

There has recently been some triumphalism in Indian government circles over reports that the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) has been successful in reducing maternal mortality and infant mortality. Yet while the reduction in maternal mortality – from 301 to 254 for every 100,000 live births – does provide some cause for cheer, the reduction in child mortality – from 58 to 53 for every 100,000 live births – still...