-Economic and Political Weekly An increase in indebtedness in agriculture between 2003 and 2013 does not necessarily mean a growth in debt that has debilitated the cultivator. Higher indebtedness may also reflect a more enabling process--the increased availability of institutional credit. An analysis of NSSO data. Sher Singh Sangwan (drsangwan8@gmail.com) is at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report, Situation Assessment of Agricultural...

-The Indian Express Delhi’s slums house people whose work makes the lives of its better-off citizens easier but they themselves offer the worst of living conditions. Lakhs of people are denied the basic need for a toilet, breeding indignity and infections. The city’ urban shelter agency DUSIB’s report on how to make the city slum-free is a challenge for any government, especially one elected on a pro-poor agenda. The Indian Express...

-The Telegraph   Tribal ministry to cover 6 lakh children of indigenous communities in Assam     Guwahati: The Union tribal affairs ministry, with the help of the health department, is planning to cover at least six lakh tribal children in Assam, including those of tea garden workers, under its sickle-cell anaemia screening programme this year. Sickle-cell anaemia is a blood disorder characterised by an abnormality in haemoglobin that carries oxygen from the lungs to...

-Economic and Political Weekly Direct benefi t transfers in the form of cash cannot replace the supply of food through the public distribution system. Though it is claimed otherwise, DBT does not address the problems of identifying the poor ("targeting") and DBT in place of the PDS will expose the vulnerable to additional price fluctuation. Further, if the PDS is dismantled, there will also be no need or incentive for procurement...

-Economic and Political Weekly The States now have an opportunity to set their own priorities in the social sector. In the constitutional scheme of things, it is the States rather than the centre which bear the larger responsibility for social sector spending. Indeed, the States already account for as much as 80% of total outlays in the area. But central government intervention in the form of establishment of and funding for certain...