-The Hindu The U.S. special supplement scheme for women, infants and children to prevent undernutrition is a model that India can learn from India’s economic growth over the last 15 years, and the growing size of the middle class, have become a source of attraction for international investors, especially in the retail food industry. However, the gap between the rich and the poor has only widened: nearly 40 per cent of the...

-Outlook Don’t blame globalization for inequality – but rather policies hijacked by a few Economic globalization in the sense of expansion of foreign trade and investment is, of course, somewhat anaemic, reflecting the impact of global recession, although still vigorous in the sense of continuous international transmission of technology, information, ideas and social media. But in the world of politics and policymaking a cold wind is blowing, dimming earlier enthusiasm for global...

-The Business Standard UID can shift focus from the government's functioning to the intended beneficiaries and ease of access The central government is seriously thinking of putting in place a technology-based platform to hand over subsidies directly into the hands of their intended beneficiaries. A number of pilots are under way for handing over, for example, kerosene subsidies for household consumption. While this is largely a central government initiative, state governments...

-The Hindu Geeta Devi’s neat Hindi signature is written below her photograph – a shy-looking woman with a dupatta covering her head – in an affidavit duly notarised in Haridwar last month. Dehradun district resident Manju smiles out of the photograph on her affidavit, where she states she is just 36 years old. According to the government of Uttarakhand, both Manju and Geeta Devi are dead. After all, both women are manual...

-The Hindu Kerala’s Kudumbashree network and the rural employment guarantee scheme have converged to provide a unique model of empowerment An incredible story of empowerment has been unfolding in the wake of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) programme in the State of Kerala. This is the story of how a socially engineered convergence of the scheme with panchayati raj institutions and the State sponsored community network of poor...