-Down to Earth Odisha supports its nutrition agenda through agricultural policies, the public distribution system among others Odisha has become the first Indian state to draw up a nutrition budget in the country. The idea of a thematic budget for nutrition is a unique one in India where an inter-departmental approach is followed. Key participants in this approach include anganwadi centres, schools and health institutions. Additionally, Odisha supports its nutrition agenda through agricultural...

-The Hindu Low allocations and specific policy statements point to greater privatisation and withdrawal of the state Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman began her speech by saying that the Union Budget was “woven around three prominent themes” — aspirational India, economic development for all and building a caring society. Achieving any of these would require extraordinary efforts on the social sector front starting with allocating additional resources for health, education, nutrition, employment...

-Newsclick.in A plethora of evidence shows that in India, public-private partnerships have either been rolled back or have led to poor Health outcomes. Recently, government think-tank NITI Aayog came up with a proposal for running district hospitals in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Under the proposal, new and existing private medical colleges will be linked with functional district hospitals. According to sources, the proposal is open to public comments till February 10, 2020. There...

-The Hindu Even better performing States have not fared well in achieving gender equality The NITI Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals Index for 2019, released on Monday, does not reveal any surprising information. The South’s Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka are joined by Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Goa as the best performers while the northern/north-central and north-eastern States have been laggardly in achieving the U.N.-mandated goals by 2030. Poor performers...

  Adolescence is a period when physical and neuro-maturational changes take place in the body of a young girl. Although it is illegal marrying a girl under the age of 18 years as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, adolescent girls in our country are compelled to marry and attain pregnancy that adversely affects well-being and outcomes of both mothers and their children. Latest available data shows that societal norms...