Planning to corner the Opposition BJP on the issue of food insecurity in the country, the Congress Core Group met today to discuss ways of enacting the pending food security Bill ahead of the cruci

Amid talk of the government taking the ordinance route to implement its ambitious National Food Security Bill, Food Minister K V Thomas Thursday met Law Minister Kapil Sibal and discussed available options. Thomas, however, is not keen on an ordinance.

Thomas told The Indian Express that the Food Ministry has proposed various options, including a special session of Parliament to discuss and pass the legislation. "We have various options before us and all discussed with the Law Minister," he said.

After the Congress’ recent political misfortune, the Opposition BJP may find itself in a bind if the Congress plan to push the ambitious National Food Security Bill (NFSB) through a special session is executed.

An indication by Food Minister KV Thomas that the government is contemplating convening a special session of Parliament for clearing Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s dream project has landed the saffron party in the proverbial catch-22 situation.

Focus On Zone And Unit-Based Programmes For Sector

The state planning board is about to push for a basic change of approach in agriculture in Kerala’s annual plan for 2013-14. The draft plan report prepared by the board proposes to foster strategies and action plan based on the scientific division of the state into Agro Ecological Zones (AEZ) and Agro Ecological Units (AEU).

Some 800,000 people will require food aid in Niger in the coming months despite a good harvest last year due to problems supplying cereals to markets, which have pushed up prices, and an influx of

The scientists transferred some of the resilience of the ancient ancestor of wheat into modern varieties

India needs to spend at least Rs 1,000 crore a year to tackle nutrition-related problems among children and women in 200 high-burden districts, the Working Group on Nutrition has said, proposing an

DIGBOI: A discussion on the topic ‘Adapting to Environmental and Climate Change in the Eastern Brahmaputra River Basin: Priorities for Research, Advocacy and Intervention’ has been successfully hel

Law ministry asked if ordinance can protect entitlement envisaged in food bill

The UPA government will write to chief ministers soon, urging them to be ready with enhanced grain storage facilities. The decision to build the political tempo for the national food security scheme comes a day after the budget session ended without passing the UPA government’s ambitious bill.

Legislature experts cite rules, precedence to back ordinance route even if bill is pending in Parliament

The government is exploring options of issuing an ordinance on the food security scheme. Union Food Minister KV Thomas told ET, constitutional and legal aspects of bringing about an ordinance were being considered. An ordinance will help the legal framework for implementing the food security scheme to be in place even before Parliament passes the legislation.