I am happy to announce that to provide remunerative price to millets-growing farmers and to improve the nutritional security, state government will procure millets and utilize them in government schemes.

During the launch of the 'Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash' scheme, I directly spoke to women representatives from the interior villages of Sambalpur and Narayanpatna. From the way the women explained the issues pertaining to their villages and their collective needs, I understood that women empowerment has reached even the grassroots of the democratic setup.

Empowerment of women is the empowerment of the nation. No household, no society, no state, no country has ever moved forward without empowering its women.

If India is to lead the world, if India is to be an advanced nation like America and China, then women empowerment is the only answer.

Democracy is the only system capable of reflecting the humanist premise of equilibrium or balance. The key to its secret is the involvement of the citizen.

We don't know yet how to build a society which is environmentally sustainable, which is shareable with everybody on the planet, which promotes stability and democracy and human rights, and which is achievable in the time-frame necessary to make it through the challenges we face.

It is wrong for the federal government to deny benefits or privileges to couples who have lawfully wed.

I grew up in London, one of four children. We were a very loud family, not a lot of listening, plenty of talking. My mum was a hearth mother: she loved to gather us all around her - Sunday lunches were a big thing. She was very good at thinking on her feet - people used to say she should go into politics.