-Economic and Political Weekly The proposed legislation on the National Food Security Act has been steadily watered down since it was fi rst mooted in 2009. The Parliamentary Standing Committee that examined the 2011 Bill has disappointingly continued with "targeting". If the government passes the bill incorporating the committee's suggestions, a historic opportunity to combat hunger and malnutrition would be lost. Ankita Aggarwal (aggarwal.ankita87@gmail.com) is a Research Scholar at the Centre for...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Veerappan's aides till Wednesday. The apex court said though the petition filed by an advocate on behalf of the convicts is not maintainable, the case of 4 condemned prisoners were similar to the case of other death row convicts pending consideration of the Supreme Court. SC's decision came after the defence advocate informed the court that he has now got...

-The Telegraph The world lauds us as the largest democracy. Yet, how much of a democracy are we and where must we improve? Elections and their consequences: We have regular elections. They are supervised with increasing effectiveness as far as booth capturing, bogus voters and violence are concerned. The influence of money has not waned; if anything, it has increased. It is not as it used to be, for paying voters only....

-The Times of India The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) through an appeal on Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to abolish death penalty and spare Veerappan's associates - Gnanaprakash, Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran from the impending execution. These associates of Veerappan were sentenced to death in 2004 in connection with a Landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993 in which 22 police personnel were killed and their mercy...

-The Business Standard Rich coal reserves found in Dharamjaigarh in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district have thrown the lives of the 15,000 Bangladeshi settlers in turmoil Kalipada Das was 12 years old when his parents slipped into India from Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) after Partition in the early fifties. As violence rocked parts of Bangladesh, Das and his parents sailed across Khulna River to reach a railway station from where they hoped to board...