-The Times of India Jaipur: They were meant to ease processes and clean up corruption in distributing food grain to the poor. Instead, the e-Point of Sale (PoS) machines have thrown up more problems than solutions. Each of these devices costs roughly Rs 17,000. They are programmed to read fingerprints of those registered to receive subsidized grain, connect to the Aadhaar database over the Internet and authenticate the recipient. Clearly, things aren't playing...

-The Hindu Move to give nutrition supplements to anganwadi children draws flak. Bengaluru: Can two grams of a plant-based dietary supplement substitute a wholesome balanced meal for anganwadi children? With the Women and Child Development Department all set to administer Spirulina to severely malnourished children, activists and nutritionists are battling for a wholesome meal instead. As announced in the State Budget, the department has decided to administer two gm of Spirulina for 180 days...

-The Indian Express Housing activists say that a heavy reliance on private sector is the prime reason for poor pace of implementation of the PMAY New Delhi: A year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) with the stated purpose of constructing two crore houses for the urban poor by 2022—at the rate of 30 lakh houses per year— merely 1,623 houses have been constructed so far. The...

-The Hindu Confining it to just the Ministry of Rural Development would be the most retrograde step in democratic decentralisation in over a quarter century. If, as The Hindu’s exclusive on Wednesday indicates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to close down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, it would confirm one’s worst fears about his government’s hypocritical approach to grass-roots democracy for grass-roots development. This was a lacuna that was evident in the ‘Gujarat...

Two back-to-back reports that shed light on the status of MGNREGA implementation in the country, have been released recently from the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). A review of MGNREGA implementation in 8 different states of India by a team of experts during the month of May this year reveals that in many of the drought affected districts, the Gram Panchayats have no work to offer under the programme. (Please click...