-The Hindu Business Line If the finance panel’s award has been negated by cutbacks elsewhere, there’s a problem A few days back, the States conveyed to the Centre that the new devolution arrangement — more under the Fourteenth Finance Commission award and less from the Union Budget — was not working well for them. The main burden of their argument was that the additional transfers — ₹1.78 lakh crore more this year...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The health ministry plans to roll out a centrally sponsored 'Health Protection Scheme' which will replace several of the existing government-supported health schemes including Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the government's flagship health insurance plan catering to families below poverty line (BPL). The proposed scheme will initially provide a minimum cover of Rs 50,000 to around 8 crore families or almost 40 crore people. It will...

-The Hindu Business Line It has worked as a rural safety net. But the Centre has other budgetary priorities A decade after the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme came into force, the NDA government has come around to accepting its usefulness — and that, in a difficult agriculture year. Last February, the Prime Minister disparaged the programme for merely digging pits. But only a few days ago, the finance minister...

-Business Standard We should work in unison to boost growth: FM Even as the Centre harped on devolving higher share of funds to states following the recommendations of the 14th finance commission, the latter demanded that they be given more money and the Union government should retain its share of funding for centrally-sponsored schemes in the upcoming Budget. At the pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday, states also sought more...

-The Indian Express ICDS, the primary scheme targeting malnutrition, needs to be broadened with the help of the National Nutrition Mission. Every once in a while, a discussion or debate starts on malnutrition. On a debated issue, precision is desirable. Initially, there were several discussions on the word “malnutrition”, which can technically mean over-nutrition, as well as under-nutrition. But now, there is global consensus on three terms. First, for a given reference age,...