-The Hindu Although the SECC’s objectives are not likely to be met, it is a big step towards providing accurate information on the well-being of the people. The release of data for rural households from the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) is only the latest step in India’s tortured history of trying to count its poor. The idea behind the SECC was technocratic. Commissioned by the United Progressive Alliance in 2011,...

-Down to Earth The findings of the new census report will place pressure on the government to redefine BPL households and the poverty line Almost four years after the UPA government found itself entangled in a controversy over using the poverty line for development programmes, the present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is likely to face the next round of consequences. The government, on Friday, released the Socio-Economic and Caste Census. The census...

-Livemint.com All future allocations to poverty alleviation schemes will be based on Socio Economic and Caste Census findings New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Friday signalled a radical regime change in its spending on entitlements. The government released provisional data from the first Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) in seven decades and declared that it will form the basis for all future allocations under poverty alleviation programmes funded by...

-Business Standard Swadeshi Jagran Manch asked the Centre to come out with a comprehensive land use policy instead of a piecemeal approach to the issue The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated economic policy group, along with Communist Party of India (CPI) affiliated All India Kisan Sabha on Tuesday made common cause in criticising the land Bill brought by the Narendra Modi government. In its presentation to the parliamentary...

-The Hindu Two years after vociferously arguing for an expansion of the provisions of the National Food Security Act, the BJP in government is bleeding it with a thousand cuts, both fiscal and otherwise When Parliament passed the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013, it had already become one of the most debated pieces of legislation in decades. Those for and against it had fought it out across yards of space...