-ANI Food Minister K.V. Thomas on Wednesday said that the proposed National Food Security Bill marks a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security - from it being viewed as a welfare approach to a right-based approach. Launching the bulletin on food justice in India brought out by the Oxfam India, the institute of development studies and the centre for legislative Research and advocacy here, Thomas said: "The Act seeks...

-Outlook Aamir Khan not only deviously censored any discussion of Ambedkar and Reservation, but seemed content to use the 1920s language of high-caste reformers This Sunday morning I received a call from a friend who alerted me to the tenth episode of Aamir Khan-anchored Satyamev Jayate since the focus was on caste and untouchability. I mumbled something about his spoiling my Sunday, but tuned in nevertheless. It began with Kaushal Panwar narrating...

-The Economic Times It was in the mid-eighties that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi said if the Centre released a rupee for the poor, only 15 paisa reached them. Decades later, not much has changed. With leakages, delays, and uneven implementation of welfare schemes like NREGA, blunting benefits to the poor, the rural development ministry is proposing to put in place a system to assess the effectiveness of the schemes even...

  -India Education Diary The Right to Education Act (RTE), enacted in 2009, has ushered in hope for school education in the country. It is the primary responsibility of the Government to ensure implementation of the Act. Being part of the concurrent list, the Central and state governments are both responsible for ensuring effective implementation of the Act. There has been significant improvement in terms of the number of primary schools, largely...

-The Indian Express Government must bring the assisted reproductive technologies bill to Parliament. More stringent regulation could have saved lives Sushma Pandey, just 17 years old, reportedly died due to procedures related to egg harvesting conducted on her by a fertility clinic in Mumbai. Two years after her death, the Bombay high court did well to criticise the police for not prosecuting the hospital for its flagrant violation of the age requirement...