Mai-baap. That is how poor Indians referred to the state ever since independence. The benign provider looking after its subjects like the rajas of yore. But, today, the people have started demanding accountability from the mai-baap. Why? Because a clutch of new laws, like the Right To Information Act (RTI) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), are moving the government's developmental promises beyond "the realm of a privilege that...
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NAC to ensure compliance of rights-based schemes by Smita Gupta
The National Advisory Council (NAC) is working to strengthen the new rights-based architecture in the country, by creating a mechanism that will put pressure on the States to strictly implement not just the social sector schemes the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has created of late, but also those in the works such as the one related to food security. NAC sources told The Hindu that while the government had enacted laws...
More »Managing the anticipated food crisis by MS Swaminathan
FAO has warned that 2011 may witness a global food crisis. Proactive action is needed to meet the challenge of price volatility, chronic hunger, agrarian despair and climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has alerted developing countries about possible steep rises in food prices during 2011, if steps are not taken immediately to increase significantly the production of major food crops. According to FAO, “with...
More »Rangarajan panel grapples with survey methodology by Gargi Parsai
As to who should conduct the survey to identify the ‘priority' and ‘general' categories of households as recommended by the National Advisory Council (NAC) was an issue that the expert panel headed by chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, C. Rangarajan, grappled with in its meeting here on Tuesday.The NAC has recommended that legal Entitlements to subsidised foodgrains be extended to at least 75 per cent of the...
More »Will the BPL survey go on and on? by MK Sunil Kumar
It seems that the survey to identify the BPL families in the state will be an unending process. Now, the Union Government's plan to start a comprehensive survey of BPL families in the country has affected the state's efforts to complete the survey of BPL families.Earlier, the state government had to abandon the survey carried out by the Kudumbashree workers in 2008 following widespread irregularities. The government had decided to...
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