-The Indian Express September 18 meeting will focus on cost, specification and security issues Moving ahead with its promise to provide smart cards to unorganised sector workers that would enable them to access social security benefits, the labour ministry has called for a meeting with smart card vendors and agencies next week. The meeting, called on September 18, will focus on finalisation of the technical aspects of such cards, including cost, specifications,...

-The Indian Express It needs to restructure its agriculture, develop sustainable cropping patterns. Laxman Singh Rathore and his entire team in the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) need to be complimented for giving us sufficient warning, well in advance, about the likelihood of yet another year of deficit rainfall. Although it was not good news, the messenger kept its honesty and boldness in speaking the bitter truth. On April 22, in its...

-Huffington Post The heartbreaking story of the parents who jumped to their death in Delhi following the death of their 7-year-old son who succumbed to dengue after being turned away from two major city hospitals has shaken the public health establishment. Union health minister JP Nadda has ordered an enquiry into the incident. Just last month, a man was made to wait for his infant son's dead body because he couldn't pay...

-PTI Nearly half of the infant deaths are tied to malnutrition, and 45 per cent occur during the first 28 days of life. Houston: Nearly 5.9 million children will die before their fifth birthday this year mainly of preventable causes, a UN report has warned, though the child mortality rate has fallen by more than 50 per cent since 1990. The mortality rate among children under five has fallen from 12.7 million...

-Economic and Political Weekly After coming to power in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance government took several measures to dilute the pro-poor provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. Though it has backed down, several questions remain over the way the Modi government has dealt with the issue of land acquisition. Santosh Verma (santosh.econ@gmail.com) is at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. Land acquisition—by private corporations or the state—has raised vital...