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‘Depriving the poor in the name of corruption is not a solution’: Aruna RoyNEW
Giving all households -- priority and general -- a common entitlement of not less than 25 kg at Rs 3/2/1 for rice/wheat/millets will solve the problem of identifying the poor who deserve to be subsidised under the Food Security Act, says RTI and right to food campaigner Aruna Roy, dismissing various criticisms of the Bill More... The ground beneath their feet: Housing rights and resettlement in DelhiNEWKalyani Menon-Sen tells the story of resettlement of basti residents in Delhi, a story of grandiose rhetoric in policy documents and diminishing entitlements on the ground More... The future no one wants?Rio+20 is expected to come up with a strong actionable plan towards sustainability, but its first official document is more business as usual than a bold vision of the future, and fails to rein in the irresponsibility of private corporations and profligate consumerism by the rich, says Ashish Kothari More... No lessons being learnt from underperforming hydropower projectsOnly four of the 12 hydropower projects in the Northeast generate at their projected 90% dependability or higher. The rest are underperforming miserably. Regardless, several big projects are under construction in the Northeast. Why don’t the stakeholders analyse the performance and impact of large hydro projects before promoting more of them? More... The public interest in subsidies and tax exemptionsWhy is cutting subsidies seen as the only way to cut down the government’s fiscal deficit, asks Kannan Kasturi. What about raising additional revenues by increasing direct taxation of the rich, reducing corporate subsidies and increasing customs duty on items such as gold? More... The need to cut pharma super-profitsThe draft National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy 2011 brings 348 essential drugs under price control, but what about non-essential drugs, which are the bulk of those sold and which can be priced several times higher than their manufacturing cost, asks S SrinivasanMore... Food Security Bill: Making sense of the numbersWe are already spending Rs 67,310 crore on food subsidies. The National Food Security Bill will increase this by only Rs 30,000 crore, just 4% of the corporate taxes that are being booked as revenues foregone, says Sachin Kumar Jain. The added expenditure will still mean a subsidy of only Rs 3.25 per person per day More... 2012: A year for transformation?2012 has been predicted by many cultures as landmark for massive transformations. May this be a year when we witness many more alternative grassroots initiatives that will help us push back the forces of destruction unleashed by the blind pursuit of economic growth, writes Ashish Kothari More... Corporate personhood: Rights without responsibilitiesWhy is the Occupy Wall Street movement protesting corporate personhood? How and why did corporations come to enjoy – and exploit -- the legal rights and freedoms granted to individual citizens, even while they are exempt from the social responsibilities that go with those freedoms? More... Patriarchy cedes to gender equalityDeeply entrenched patriarchy continues in modern India, from the airlines to the armed forces. But the Supreme Court’s November 2011 judgment, stating that Air India’s policy of appointing only males as in-flight supervisors was patently discriminatory, is a victory More... Kerala, West Bengal record significant declines in farm suicidesWhile the Big 5 states have shown sharp spikes in farmer suicides during 2003-10, P Sainath points out why other states have recorded a decline in farm suicides More... In 16 years, farm suicides cross a quarter-millionIn 2010, 15,964 farm suicides have been reported by the National Crime Records Bureau, writes P Sainath, and close to two-thirds of them have occurred in the five states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, AP, MP and Chhattisgarh More... Persistent exclusion of Muslims in IndiaIndia’s Human Development Report 2011 cites only a minuscule improvement in the socio-economic status of Muslims in India compared with other excluded groups. Ayesha Pervez explores the government’s response to this situation and explains why the extreme deprivation and exclusion of Muslims continues despite these measures More... Too many cooksCooking has always been a gendered activity, and the arrival of gourmet foods as part of globalised lifestyles and cooking as a glamorous spectator sport on TV, has done little to alter the politics around food, writes Manjima Bhattacharjya More... Nuclear power: Myths, realities and FAQsBesides Koodankulam, local communities in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, and Gorakhpur, Haryana, are nixing nuclear power plants in their area. But government continues to maintain they are 100% safe, and that there is no alternative to nuclear energy. Nityanand Jayaraman and G Sundar Rajan dispel misconceptions about the safety of nuclear energy More... |
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