-The Hindu Business Line The government must simplify and rationalise GST, kickstart rural consumption, revive agriculture and tackle the lack of credit for capital creation, says former PM Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an eminent economist himself, feels that the Narendra Modi-led government needs to come out of its habit of headline management and address the economic challenges which the country is facing today. “We cannot afford to deny that India is facing...

-The Hindu Local governments remain hamstrung and ineffective — mere agents to do the bidding of higher level governments Democratic decentralisation is barely alive in India. Over 25 years after the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments (they mandated the establishment of panchayats and municipalities as elected local governments) devolved a range of powers and responsibilities and made them accountable to the people for their implementation, very little and actual progress has been...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: With the salt-and-roti expose in Mirzapur embroiling the mid-day meal scheme in controversy, the government will conduct a quality audit of food served to children. This will be conducted by external agencies, including Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Lucknow University and Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow. A similar audit in 2016 by Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIDS), Lucknow, focused only on two districts. This time, the...

-The Tribune No food items supplied to centres in several districts since July Chandigarh: Even as the state government is holding workshops to celebrate Poshan Maah (nutrition month) in five-star hotels, it has failed to provide food to over five lakh poor children attending anganwadis for the past almost two months now. Sources claim since mid-July, a large number of anganwadis in the state have not provided food to children. The reports gathered...

-The Hindu Angul Pusti Adhikar Abhiyan, a community level forum organized this ‘egg relay competition’ to promote intake of nutritious food. BHUBANESWAR: When there is a lot of taboo around consumption of egg and chicken products among women in remote Odisha villages, mothers competing with their kids in swallowing boiled eggs in Angul district is surely an unusual sight. But Angul Pusti Adhikar Abhiyan (APAA), a community level forum promoting intake of nutritious...