KEY TRENDS • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14 • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...
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State seeks amendment in RTI Act to appoint officiating CIC by Jasneet Bindra
The Punjab government has sought an amendment to the RTI Act for appointment of officiating chief information commissioner (CIC). The state has written to the Ministry of Personnel, Grievances and Pensions and the Ministry of Law and Justice, saying that amendment in the Act be carried out so that there is clarity regarding status, salary and allowances given to the officiating CIC. At present, an officiating CIC is appointed through a routine...
More »Pawar rules out free foodgrains by Vinaya Deshpande
Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar on Saturday dismissed the possibility of free foodgrains distribution. “The government already spends Rs. 66,000 crore on foodgrains subsidy. We buy wheat from farmers at Rs. 15 a kg, but sell it to the Antyodaya population at Rs. 2 a kg. How can we sell any cheaper than that?” He was speaking at a meeting of the Maharashtra Pradesh Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Free distribution of foodgrains...
More »Crucial process by V Venkatesan
The method of selection of Information Commissioners cries out for reform. FOR the Right to Information (RTI) Act to be successful, it is not enough if it has provisions that encourage information-sharing and punish those Information Officers who deny requests for information on specious grounds. Activists have found that while deciding appeal cases the degree of commitment of Information Commissioners to the Act's objectives matters more than the supportive provisions of...
More »School kids cut CM to size, Mayavati shrinks to Mavati by Tapas Chakraborty
Mayavati had better do something quick about the state of schools in Uttar Pradesh if she wants children to spell her name right. An NGO assessing the District Primary Education Programme and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, a national programme for universalisation of elementary education, asked 16 students of Classes III and IV of a government school in Joar village near Lucknow to write the name of their chief minister in Hindi. Mavit and...
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