A report by a parliamentary standing committee entrusted to examine the National Food Security Bill, 2011 has revived the debate on what measures India must take to end its abysmal track record of hunger and malnutrition, (See several links given below) despite successive years of high growth and record grain procurement. The draft legislation is likely to be debated in the upcoming session of Parliament, even as the recent Jaipur...

-Outlook Malda (WB): For the first time in the country, a court having woman judges and staff to deal exclusively with atrocities against women was inaugurated today at Malda town in West Bengal. The court would hear all cases of atrocities against women for delivering speedy justice, officials said. Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice Arun Mishra inaugurated the court on the birthday anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose whose Azad Hind...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Monday wanted to know from Andaman & Nicobar Island administration whether it intended to keep in isolation the extremely endangered Jarawa tribe, which numbered just over 300, and banned all tourist movement in their habitat. "We need to know the policy of the government. Whether they want the Jarawas to be kept in isolation or to be assimilated in the mainstream," asked a bench...

-Bloomberg.com One of the most obscene moments after the death of the gang-rape victim in New Delhi was a tweet by Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, offering regret and condolences to the dead woman’s family. Modi, who has quelled restive minorities by allowing attackers to subject women to unspeakable horrors, has done more than any man to numb his prudish country to sexual violence. Yet he...

-The Indian Express At a recent Seminar organised to review the progress made by Muslims since the 2006 Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee report was tabled, speakers debated on whether or not there’s been any positive change on the ground level. Three members of the panel — Justice Sachar, economist Abusaleh Shariff and academician T K Oomen — discussed with experts and politicians what had changed for Muslims in the last six years. Defending...