-Outlook Is the devolution of ­national funds to states really worth the praise? * Share of the states in the divisible pool of central taxes has risen from 32% to 42% for five years till 2019-20 * Rise in untied funds transferred is accompanied by cut in Central assistance for state plan spending * Limited ability of the poorer states to expand their fiscal space with own revenue collection * Funds for rural development...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union health ministry will on Thursday launch the third phase of a vaccination campaign to cover an estimated 36 lakh children in 216 districts across India who have never received vaccines or remain partially immunised. The campaign designed to immunise children against seven vaccine-preventable diseases - diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis-B - will focus on areas dogged by irregular or poor routine immunisation...

-The Hindu The GARV app puts pressure on State governments for timely and quality delivery “I am going to turn everything into an app and I am going to allow people to monitor daily what work we are doing, what work States are doing” — Piyush Goyal, March 23, 2016 at the Power Focus Summit Rural electrification has been an enduring challenge for successive governments. Given India’s federal structure, States provide last-mile connectivity...

  Social audit is an important tool not just to ensure transparency and accountability in the MGNREGS, but also for successful running of the programme. The MIS (Management Information System) data provided by the website www.nrega.nic.in reveals that at the national-level roughly one-third of all districts were covered under social audit during the financial year 2015-16, as on 26 March, 2016. The top 5 states during 2015-16 (FY) in terms of the...

-The Hindu The Centre claims to be fulfilling the Prime Minister’s plan for full rural electrification. But a close check of its own real-time data shows that the gap between official claims and ground reality is stark Haldu Khata, a village in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh, is one of the 7,008 villages that the government claims to have “electrified” in the last year, under the Modi government’s flagship scheme of rural...