-The Hindustan Times   A number of NGOs have opposed the Delhi government's proposal of giving Rs 1,000 cash per family per month instead of subsidised foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS). A pilot project for approximately 100 families is being run in Raghubir Nagar in west Delhi wherein instead of the subsidised grain, the government is doling out Rs 1,000 in cash. NGOs working with poor people, however, are aghast...

The demand by the civil society representatives to accord power to Lokpal to delegate its ‘authority’ to individual members of the proposed 11-member body Turned out to be a major sticking point in the fourth meeting of the joint drafting committee of the Bill. The meeting, which otherwise saw agreement over a host of other aspects of the proposed legislation, witnessed a long discussion on the issue of whether Lokpal should...

The government is likely to accept most of the recommendations of Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) on the proposed food security law despite warnings that the suggestions would add to subsidy burden, increase dependence on imports and distort the country's food economy. The food ministry has set out plans that are in line with the NAC's proposal to widen the scope of the legislation, which seeks to provide legal...

In the 1920s, a young Tamil girl sang and starred in her school musical. It was, ostensibly, a private event with few outsiders. Yet so exceptional was her singing that Swadesamitran ran her photograph and wrote about the event. Seeing that photo in the newspaper, her household “was appalled” for, as the music historian V Sriram writes, “good, chaste women never had their photographs published in papers”. Today, this seems like...

It is the improper mode of application, violating the law and regulations, that is responsible for the apparent adverse toxic effects of endosulfan. FROM a scientific perspective, an extremely pertinent question in the endosulfan story is why adverse health effects similar to those seen in the villages of Kasaragod district in Kerala have not been reported from other parts of the country where the pesticide is used in much larger...