-Frontline The inability to resolve pressing problems with respect to the production, distribution and availability of food is one of the important failures of the entire economic reform process. IN the fateful month of July 1991, when the devaluation of the Indian rupee presaged the introduction of a whole series of liberalising economic reforms, agriculture was very far from the minds of most policymakers and commentators. The immediate focus was on...

-The Times of India Mangaluru: Looking for an alternative to coffee sans caffeine? The search ends here with jaffee, a hot drink prepared from jackfruit seed. The product attracted many visitors at the two-day 'Halasu Mela' at Pilikula Nisargadhama, which started on Saturday. One of the manufacturers of jaffee, Shivanna from Chikkamagaluru said that he launched it recently and it has received good response from customers. "The product tastes and has aroma...

-The Hindu The Maharashtra government’s decision to promulgate an ordinance this week to exempt farmers from having to mandatorily sell their fruit and vegetable crop at mandis governed by a 1963 law on marketing farm produce, is a bold and laudable step. That Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has stood his ground against the powerful lobby of middlemen, who shut shop in protest, is even more commendable. The problem with the present...

-The Hindu Nine days for release, the sole inhabitant fears losing benefits New Delhi: Arvind Singh is not a beggar, but he chooses to be seen as one. For three months now, the 60-year-old with sunken cheeks and arched eyebrows has been the only resident of Delhi government’s shelter for 1,525 beggars at Lampur, Narela. The single-storied home on 22 acres shares a compound with the Foreigners Detention Centre. There are nearly 70 rooms...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Free health-care services during childbirth remain a pipe dream for most of India's poor, whether it relates to diagnostic tests, medicines, transport or even food, despite the Union health ministry launching a "free entitlements" programme five years ago. The families of most women who seek childbirth in government hospitals are forced to pay for supposedly "free" services, at times experiencing catastrophic expenditures likely to accentuate their poverty, two...