WHILE old stocks of foodgrains which are contaminated and inedible are being given to adivasi areas through the public distribution system (PDS), the newer stocks are being kept for exports, Brinda Karat, member of Parliament and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, told the union food minister K V Thomas on February 21. Showing to the minister the samples of contaminated rice collected from adivasi areas in Andhra Pradesh, she said inedible wheat...
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‘Need for linking farmers directly to market’
A shift from the traditional rice-wheat cycle and linking farmers directly to the market can end the current stagnation in farm sector, according to the Economic Survey 2010-11 tabled in the Parliament on Friday.The survey stated that capital investment were required not only for farm productivity but also to create adequate infrastructure for transport, storage and distribution of agricultural produce. The stagnation is evident from the fact that whereas overall GDP...
More »Increase outlay for higher and technical education by Dhiraj Mathur
The government passed the historic Right to Education Act (RTE Act) making education a fundamental right of every child.The Act makes it obligatory for the government to ensure that every child in the six to 14 years age group gets free elementary education.According to government estimates, there are nearly 220 million children in the relevant age group, of which 4.6%, or nearly 9.2 million, are out of school.Under the Act,...
More »GoM splits over PM in Lokpal purview by Josy Joseph
The age-old debate of whether the PM should be brought under the Lokpal has returned to the centre of discussion at the highest echelons as a group of ministers considers the anti-corruption mechanism. The GoM, headed by Pranab Mukherjee, is laying out UPA-2's roadmap to fight corruption, as it reels under an unprecedented onslaught by gigantic scams all around. Sources said the GoM, in its upcoming meeting, would look at the Lokpal...
More »Live on FM radio by Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Money makes news. When it is found, promiscuously. And when it is lost, presumptively. And when it is found to lie hidden. Also when it stands brazenly, as in election candidatures. Does hunger, to satisfy which money, income, wages — the power to purchase food — are needed, make news? Does the crisis in our agriculture make news? When Amartya Sen speaks of hunger and malnutrition, when MS Swaminathan does so...
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