-Outlook The government today approved Planning Commission's proposal to merge the 147 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and bring it down to 66 across various sectors for effective implementation and monitoring of the 12th Five Year Plan. "The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal to merge CCS", Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters after the meeting. Last month, a Group of Ministers, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, had approved merging of...

-The Times of India The Centre will stop direct transfer of funds to districts or societies operating in states, and will instead provide the money to the state exchequer, having concluded that the existing system was the reason for multi-crore scams like the one in the National Rural Health Mission. The new system to put funds in the Consolidated Fund of states is apparently aimed at putting central funds under the scanner...

-The Economic Times The Supreme Court may have called upon the " caged parrot" Central Bureau of Investigation to free itself from the interference of the executive, but the dependence of the agency on its several masters in the government makes it easier said than done. The ministries of home, personnel, law and finance can all be construed as the masters of CBI in one way or the other, given the decisive...

-The Hindu Business Line     The Comptroller and Auditor General's suggestion that the CBI be given constitutional status similar to that of his own office is not without merit. Every now and then, the issue of freeing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the Government's clutches takes on a fresh urgency. The latter's response has been to wait till the fuss died down and eventually do nothing. There are no special reasons...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...