-The Hindu Not more than 50 p.c. urban, 70 p.c. rural families can get cards Hassan (Karnataka): The State government, which launched the Anna Bhagya scheme to provide Below Poverty Line (BPL) families rice at Re. 1 a kg, has now decided to put a stringent cap on eligibility. A recent circular directs Food and Civil Supplies officers to ensure that not more than 70 per cent households in rural areas and...

-Down to Earth   This defies logic. Despite rapid economic growth, India has often been placed below sub-Saharan African countries that have very high number of malnourished children. But the government has no data to clarify its position. In the first week of September, Parliament’s Committee on Estimates criticised the government, saying: “The committee is surprised to note that in the modern era of Information and Technology, there is no recent official...

-The Indian Express Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has more than one reason to cheer the Raghuram Rajan committee report's ranking of states on composite development. Apart from being put close to the bottom of the ladder in the new index of underdevelopment, Bihar also scores near the top in "performance", that is, the reduction of underdevelopment - a most sensible parameter introduced in the report - far ahead of Narendra...

-The Hindu The ordinance seeking to amend the Representation of the People Act interferes with the exercise of judicial power Bill LXII of 2013, namely, The Representation of the People (Second Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 is pending before Parliament. I examine here whether the Bill, when passed as an Act or its provisions promulgated as an Ordinance, will be unconstitutional or not. Declared principle The constitutional principle applicable in a situation analogous to...

-Live Mint Payroll-to-population employment rate for women in South Asia 10% against 36% for men New Delhi: India and other South Asian nations have the world's highest gender gap in employment rates, according to a survey by Gallup Inc., a US research and consulting services company. The payroll-to-population (P2P) employment rate for women in South Asia is 10% as compared to 36% for men, a deficit of 26 points. Globally, the deficit in...