-The Hindu Bangalore: The recent police crackdown in Ramnagaram on organ trading resulted in the arrest of a few middlemen, who were found to have lured donors to part with their kidneys for a pittance. But the arrests and investigations have not deterred the touts who run a thriving organ trade business right here, under the very nose of the city police. A team from The Hindu posed as relatives of a...

-Right to Food Campaign   Chhattisgarh upstaged the Centre yesterday by enacting the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act (CFSA), an improved version of the "national food security bill" that has been languishing in Parliament for more than a year. Under the CFSA, about 90% of the population of Chhattisgarh will have PDS entitlements, mostly under the Priority and Antyodaya categories, entitled to 35 kgs of foodgrains per month at a token price...

-Outlook Raipur: Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly today passed the Food Security Bill aimed at providing food and nutritional security to around 50 lakh families in the state. Chief Minister Raman Singh told the House that the provisions of the bill ensured that adequate quantity of quality food will be available at affordable prices to nearly 50 lakh families. The new provisions will add a burden of Rs 2,311 crore on the state exchequer. Hailing Chhattisgarh...

-The Hindu To address the rights issue and the skewed sex ratio, girl child-friendly policies get an extra thrust in the 12 Plan document, to be approved formally by this month-end The 12 Plan document of the Planning Commission, to be formally approved this month-end, has recommended setting up of a high level inter-ministerial committee on ‘Care and Protection of the Girl Child’ which will constitute the institutional mechanism for mobilising and...

Should they be targeted? Should they go to individuals or households? Are conditionalities necessary? Without a full consideration of these issues, cash transfers will remain an expensive gamble Having worked on cash transfers for over 25 years, and being an economist, I find recent criticisms of the idea shrill and ill-informed. Only a right-wing ideologue would call them a panacea or a cure-all. They would merely be a vast improvement on...