-The Times of India Private companies have hijacked the government's flagship scheme to provide food to poor children and their mothers, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), with contractors in Maharashtra alone controlling Rs 1,000 crore worth of supplies in contravention of Supreme Court orders, a report of the SC commissioners office has said. The SC orders bar contractors from supplying rations under the scheme. It only permits village communities, self-help groups...

-Outlook Bombay High Court today ticked off Maharashtra Government for not complying with its order to form a multi-member panel to look into recent hike in fares of autorickshaw and taxi saying the state is being held hostage by pressure groups. "We are thoroughly dissatisfied with the government," a division bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and R G Ketkar observed while hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO 'Mumbai Grahak...

42 families from Birpur village of Satna district in northern Madhya Pradesh are on a protest since the beginning of the month, to draw attention to the siphoning of their PDS foodgrain. Additionally, through an online petition put by a local activist group, the families are demanding that K.K. Khare, Satna’s District Collector use his powers to crack down on the months-long corruption and resume their supply of ration entitlements....

-PTI Industry body Ficci today said the government should relook at certain clauses of the proposed Land Acquisition Bill such as role of state governments and the entitlements for the private sector, prior to placing it before the Cabinet. Group of Ministers on Land Acquisition Bill, headed by Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar, had approved the proposed legislation with changes last month. In a letter to Pawar, Ficci President R V Kanoria said state...

-The Hindustan Times In a report released in October, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Oraganisation (FAO), which leads international efforts to defeat hunger, said that economic growth is not enough to reduce hunger and malnutrition. To beat the twin menace, it added, a country needs nutrition-sensitive agriculture, social protection and purposeful and decisive public policies. Both statements hold true for India. But the unfortunate part is that while the country has been...