-The Hindu Business Line   As the Food Security Bill awaits Parliament clearance, India fears that implementation of obligations under the Bill may lead to breach of farm subsidy limits fixed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and attract penalties if some global rules are not amended. New Delhi is, therefore, scouting for support at the WTO in seeking an amendment to the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) to remove limits on public stockholding...

-The Hindu   The educational and economic development of Dalits is seen by the backward castes as a challenge to the social order, as recent incidents in Tamil Nadu show On the evening of November 7, 2012, a crowd numbering over 1000 people burst into three Dalit settlements in Dharmapuri, north-western Tamil Nadu, and laid them waste. Over a period of several hours, they looted, smashed and burned. Trees had been felled on...

-The Hindustan Times Passage of the UPA's flagship food security bill, a potential vote-winner, is at risk of being delayed with the BJP disrupting Parliament as it seeks the heads of two scandal-tainted ministers and key government ally Sharad Pawar demanding a full debate on the legislation. The food bill aims to give about two-thirds of Indians, or over 800 million people, a legal right to cheap food, and is a programme...

-Live Mint Move could assume significance given the pressure facing a government battling a series of corruption allegations New Delhi: A parliamentary committee on Monday sought to make a case for controlling the media-both print and electronic-through a statutory regulator, a suggestion that could assume significance given the pressure facing a government battling a series of corruption allegations. The standing committee on information technology called for such a regulator on grounds that the...

-The Indian Express A sound whistleblowers' protection law is long awaited. It languishes in Parliament at the system's peril Nandi Singh, a resident of a remote village in Assam, was brutally attacked with axes in September 2012 as a result of a complaint filed by him regarding irregularities in the functioning of fair price shops supplying rations under the public distribution system. He succumbed to his injuries on the way to the...