-The Hindu The US Trafficking in Persons report for 2015 said official complicity remained a “serious concern” Unveiling a closely-watched annual anti-trafficking report this week the U.S. State Department retained India’s classification as a “Tier II” nation for human trafficking concerns, which implied that the U.S. viewed India as a country that whose government did not fully comply with its Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards, but was making significant efforts...

-Hindustan Times A nutrition plan within the National Food Security Act meant for pregnant women and lactating mothers, a vulnerable group that skews India’s hunger indices, looks quietly buried. It still runs as a trial in 52 districts, two years after the landmark legislation was signed into law. The Centre hasn’t yet begun budgeting for it to expand the maternal health scheme to cover the whole country. While a parallel scheme under...

-Hindustan Times While searching for updates on the United Nations Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which took place in Addis Ababa recently, I came across an interesting piece of news: Music maestro AR Rahman and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan would join a seven-day global campaign to popularise the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are a new set of universal goals, targets and indicators that 193 UN member states will...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Various ministries — led by health, agriculture and human resource development — have released close to Rs 44,000 crore over the past few years without getting utilization certificates or accounts of grants given to statutory bodies and organizations, resulting in spending without any evidence of gains flowing to the beneficiaries. The concern has been flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a new report...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: A Union government-backed survey has revealed a disturbing trend: in the six years since the Right to Education Act, around 60 lakh children between ages six and 13 years remain unschooled in the country. While children from Scheduled Castes and Tribes form 49% (29.73 lakh) of the deprived kids, those from Other Backward Classes constitute 36%, which shows RTE has brought little change in the lives of...