-The Telegraph The index includes 5 pillars comprising 41 indicators on the basis of which the States have been ranked for literacy among children. * The Index is aimed at understanding the overall state of foundational learning across children aged below 10 years in India * Chief minister Mamata Banerjee congratulates all teachers, guardians and members of the education department West Bengal has topped the ‘large States’ category in the Index on Foundational Literacy...

-Hindustan Times The study has been authored by Aditi Roy, PHFI Crop diversity is thought to have small, positive impacts on dietary diversity among farming households, particularly when market access is restricted. Policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic severely restricted market access. To date, no study has explored the relationship between crop and dietary diversity in this context. To address this gap, we used longitudinal data collected from 833 farmers across 12...

-IdeasforIndia.com The Centre has sought an additional Rs. 25,000 crore as funding for MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). Based on simple calculations using official data, Ashwini Kulkarni contends that the actual fund requirement is in fact much higher. As the pandemic continues to adversely impact rural livelihoods, the government should allocate sufficient funds to MNREGA, in order to honour the work-on-demand guarantee. For over a month, national and local...

-The Telegraph Shortage of funds that was being cited was a gross violation of the law: Swaraj Abhiyan The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine an NGO’s plea that crores of workers were in a crisis as funds-starved States had run up wage dues of Rs 9,682 crore under the Centre’s flagship 100-day job scheme MGNREGA that has witnessed an increase in beneficiaries because of the pandemic. A bench of Chief Justice...

-TheWire.in The auctions let millers earn a bloated revenue of at least Rs 4,600 crore in four years from milling over 5.4 lakh tonnes of raw pulses, hammering government coffers and possibly the quality of daal, show documents. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government allowed millers to fatten themselves on tonnes of pulses meant for the poor by turning an auction procedure on its head. The Reporters’ Collective’s examination of auction archives shows...