-CaravanMagazine.in In 2005, Maharashtra’s Palghar district became the face of chronic child malnutrition in India as reports emerged of the death of 718 children due to malnutrition. Palghar, a predominantly tribal region, with a 37 percent Adivasi population, is only 114 kilometres away from Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and one of the richest cities in Asia. The next decade saw India’s gross domestic product grow in double digits, enthralling both...

-The Hindu Unlike the rest of India, Kerala has maintained the SAMe level of daily testing despite a reduction in number of cases From mid-February, a spike in daily new cases was reported from a few States including Maharashtra. For days on end, the Health Ministry kept repeating the message that Kerala too was “witnessing an upsurge of daily new cases”. Even as recently as March 6, the Health Ministry wrongly implicated...

-Scroll.in Old customs and foods no longer have the SAMe meaning because the rice varieties associated with them are long gone. In Bengali culture, like many other cultures in Asia, “eating rice” is synonymous with “having a meal”. The Sanskrit word “anna” and the old Bengali word “odan” mean both “rice” and “meal”. A standard Bengali expression – “Have you eaten rice?” – is a polite way to inquire, “Have you had...

When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...

-The Hindu To say that growth and inequality converge in terms of their effects on socio-economic outcomes is outrageous The Economic Survey 2021 (https://bit.ly/2OfqfVQ) does not seem to be a policy document derived straight from the empirical data of the economy or the social compulsions embedded in it. On the contrary, the Survey rings with policy postulates based on strong ideological overtones. Of interest would be Chapter 4, captioned ‘Inequality and Growth:...