-The Hindu In its latest form, the National Food Security Bill, 2013 promises to address the extreme irony of an ambitious nation holding mountains of food in storage, while masses of its people are undernourished or even starving. The right to food is finally on the threshold of being legislated. Every step taken to widen the coverage of food security schemes is an advance. Yet, the empirical truth is that...

-The Hindu On Monday, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, completes three years of its existence - the time frame within which authorities were to ensure that its provisions were fully implemented - to make basic education a legal entitlement to all children aged 6-14. However, official statistics and reports from the field paint a far-from satisfactory picture, with citizens moving court against the competent authority...

-The Telegraph Many Indians stand in solidarity with the protest launched by the academic community in the University of Pennsylvania against the decision to invite Narendra Modi, writes Prasenjit Bose S L. Rao's criticisms of the academics of the University of Pennsylvania, who had initiated a campaign against Wharton Business School's invitation to Narendra Modi, in his article, "The trip that never was" (March 18), are not only unwarranted but they also...

-The Hindu However, the country’s value increased 61 per cent from 1980 to 2012 India has been ranked 136 among 187 countries evaluated for human development index (HDI) — a measure for assessing progress in life expectancy, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living or gross national income per capita. The Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for 2013, released on Thursday, puts India’s HDI value for...

-The Indian Express They are denied entry to temples, given restricted access to water, made to work for a pittance. Now that Orissa's Dalits are asserting themselves against traditions, many are facing ostracism or violent attacks. Debabrata Mohanty reports Until a month before Naveen Patnaik became Orissa's chief minister in March 2000, Dalit labourer Ganapati Naik, now 42, had been living a happy if impoverished life with his bride and parents in...