-India Today A day before the city government is due to present its crucial Budget, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday promised to provide ample employment opportunities and other facilities to Delhiites . The CM also refuted allegations of the government being 'insensitive' and reminded that a dedicated helpline number for women in distress had been set up. Presenting the economic survey in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday, Dikshit said the city...

-The Business Standard Kolkata: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has slammed the government's Right To Education (RTE) programme. This, he said, was only a step towards ensuring a means of livelihood for teachers. Banerjee said the programme, implemented in 2009, lacked sense. He said he wasn't hopeful about the outcome of the initiative. "It is simply for the teachers, by the teachers,...

-The Hindustan Times Just 165 grams of cereals a person will get every day once the national food security law comes into effect, the Right To Food (RTF) campaign said on Tuesday. Reacting to the Cabinet’s approval of the bill, the campaign said the food entitlement would be woefully short of government’s own norm for nutritional requirement of a person. The campaign said that the provision of providing only 5 kg of...

-The Indian Express An accountability framework is critical for flagship schemes In his budget speech, the finance minister gave the assurance that all flagship programmes of the government would be adequately funded. The government pours substantial funds into 70 Centrally sponsored schemes. In 2011-12, an amount of Rs 1,88,573 crore was allocated for the implementation of 13 development programmes, such as the MGNREGA, PMGSY, NRHM and JNNURM, under the auspices of nine...

-The Indian Express In all its versions, the food security bill places an unbearable fiscal burden, further distorts agriculture The design of policy in the revised version of the food security law proposed by the food ministry — cabinet approval for which was deferred on Monday — will make a bad idea worse. It is even less concerned about the imperatives of fiscal sustainability and the needs of the Indian population. Providing...