The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee has cleared the Food Security Bill, paving the way for Right to food to be made a fundamental right backed by legal provision. The bill is strongly supported by Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The right to food campaign, which is a collaboration of people's movements from across the country, is now on the verge of seeing its demand of a right to food become a reality.
'He has been one of the clearest thinkers in the history of business.'
A 37-year-old man accused of raping a woman inside a bus at Swargate bus station in Pune was arrested after a days-long manhunt. The accused, Dattaray Ramdas Gade, was hiding in a paddy field in his native Shirur tehsil. Police used drones and sniffer dogs to track him down.
Ushering in the biggest programme in the world to fight hunger, Parliament on Monday gave its nod to the landmark Food Security Bill which seeks to provide highly subsidised foodgrains to the country's two-third population as a right.
A decision on the legal right of the poor to get wheat or rice at Rs 3 per kg was deferred on Thursday as Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar could not attend the meeting of a panel of ministers on the Food Security Bill on health grounds.
'I am smitten with Tokyo's eclectic mix of modern cosmopolitanism and old world Japan,' confesses Dinesh Raheja.
The ordinance on the Food Security Bill is expected to come up for consideration in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, sources said on Monday.
Lending her support to Donald Trump's leadership prowess, the Italian PM said that the Left Wing is nervous about leaders from conservative parties winning and collaborating globally.
It will also end the below and above poverty line (BPL and APL) demarcation, prevailing in the current public distribution system.
While the motives of the Bill are of course laudable, there is every likelihood that the consequences of its passage will be dire.
A public interest litigation was filed on Saturday in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of controversial Food Security Ordinance on the ground that the constitutional provision has been misused for pre-election propaganda and political gains.
The Manmohan Singh government's rush to pass the Food Security Bill reflects extreme paucity of logic and action, says Neeta Kolhatkar
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday termed Food Security Bill a "historic legislation" and asked party leaders to publicise its importance to masses as they gear up for elections scheduled early next year.
The big budget and big boom National Food Security Bill, which will be to UPA II what the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right To Information Act were to UPA I, could not be cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday and has been deferred to be taken up in its next meeting.
'We are not asking for incentives, but at least taxation can be aligned such that the rupee tax on consumers remains the same.'
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Sakshi Balani presents an FAQ on the Food Security Bill that was passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The government today decided to promulgate an ordinance to give nation's two-third population the right to 5 kgs of foodgrain every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg. The Cabinet, which had in June deferred a decision on the issue, today approved promulgating an ordinance to implement the Food Security Bill, sources said.
The overall fiscal and inflationary consequences of the Food Security Bill for the country are "large" and will become clear from the next fiscal year.
Amid rising consumer complaints, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Monday barred hotels and restaurants from levying service charge automatically or by default in food bills and allowed customers to file complaints in case of violation. The CCPA has issued guidelines for preventing unfair trade practices and violation of consumer rights with regard to levying of service charge. "No hotels or restaurants shall add service charge automatically or by default in the bill," CCPA chief commissioner said in the guideline.
Only three percent of Indians pay income tax; our tax-GDP ratio is among the lowest in the world. This must change. Our elites must realise that India's poverty has damaging consequences for them, and that they can help decrease it. The food security bill, with all its limitations, will hopefully contribute to generating such awareness, says Praful Bidwai.
Critical of the hurried clearance of the food security ordinance, Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh said on Thursday the United Progressive Alliance government was just doing a "political gimmick in a hurry" before the 2014 general elections.
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Can the leaky public distribution system, or PDS, deliver the subsidised grain to two-thirds of the population?
Nowhere on the planet, nowhere in mankind's history has such an idea taken the concrete shape in form of a law. The National Food Security Bill, which will come via ordinance and not after the debate in Parliament, is an incredible economic tool to tackle the hunger of poor Indians. Also, it has already been condemned widely as a political gimmick.
'Today, let us reaffirm our commitment to strive to realise Gandhiji's dreams. His watchwords, truth and nonviolence, will continue to remain relevant for the whole world. He also taught us that rights and duties are but the two sides of the coin - indeed, the true source of rights is duty. Today we recall his lessons in compassion too - compassion not only for our human neighbours but also for our other neighbours, namely, flora and fauna, rivers and mountains.'
To prevent exploitation of women, especially those in rural and tribal areas, the government has prohibited foreigners from commissioning surrogacy in the country and has drafted this comprehensive legislation.
Implementing the Food Ordinance is the bigger challenge and there are many provisions of the National Food Security Bill which need to be expanded and strengthened.
In doing so, it further cemented the community's determination to support the opposition. But at the same time, it consolidated its Hindu vote bank like never before.
In a series of tweets, she has accused his production house, Anil Sharma Productions, of mismanagement during the shooting of their film in Chandigarh.
Terming the ordinance promulgated by the Union cabinet to implement the Food Security Bill as a "cruel joke" on democracy, Bharatiya Janat Party President Rajnath Singh said that his party would not oppose the passage of the bill in Parliament but seek amendments to it.
Have you wondered how many days of work -- depending on your net monthly income -- you would have to put in to buy the top-end iPhone 16 Pro?
While reforms may translate into new opportunities for firms like ITC, Adani Wilmar and Reliance Retail, farmers are unlikely to use it for fear of upsetting commission agents.
Unlike in langars, free feeding under the food security bill may force people to swallow their shame.
'The poor must be allowed to self select themselves. A poor family must be given a ration card on demand and the government must accept responsibility for providing subsidised food grain.'
Anjali quickly decided not to pursue her career in medicine. If she had worked in a government hospital, she would have had to do her fair share of nights and weekends in hospital, which would have been tough when Sachin was back in Bombay between tours. Had she worked in private practice as Dr Anjali Tendulkar, she reckoned she would be consulted for her name rather than her expertise. Anjali is an all-or nothing person and she couldn't have just dabbled in doctoring. Moreover, she wanted to devote herself to keeping her husband in the right frame of mind to play his best cricket. A fascinating excerpt from Annabel Mehta and Georgina Brown's book, My Passage to India.
When the landslide hit, Sruthi's house was washed away, along with its inhabitants. She lost her entire family and some relatives. All she had left for a close confidante was her fiance Jenson. Days after the landslide and the loss of her family, Jenson died in a road accident that also left Sruthi with serious injuries. News of the accident and Sruthi's backdrop as the lone surviving member of a family wiped out in the July landslide, was picked up by the media, and people rushed to help.
'They are attacking my wife; they are attacking our 13-month-old daughter. They are saying that I do drugs.' 'I'm giving an open challenge to Mr Nawab Malik and Ms Sana Malik let's go to the labs and let's do the medical test of our family and your family.'
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'It is not right for batters to steal two or three metres and then bowlers marginally overstepping and getting a free hit. I know people want to see sixes and fours but also if you are a real cricket lover, you want to see competition between bat and ball and not just one-sided games.'
From working in a garment factory, selling bread, and driving an autorickshaw, the 24-year-old fast bowler's path to representing domestic giants Mumbai was anything but easy.
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