Proposes centralised PDS network, model PDS software for transparency. As the government works out the modalities for implementing direct transfer of subsidies on cooking gas, fertilisers and kerosene, a task force headed by Nandan Nilekani has proposed a three-stage model for direct transfer of food subsidy. The rollout of direct transfer of food subsidy will be contingent on a modern and computerised public distribution system (PDS), for which Nilekani has suggested a...

  The Centre is now seriously exploring ways to bring pre-school education under Right to Education Act to provide free and compulsory education to children between the age group of four and six.   The move has been initiated following a recommendation made by National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, which stressed that bringing pre-school education under the ambit of RTE Act would ensure continuity in the child’s education. A...

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court judgment striking down ultra vires the amendment to the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act to defer implementation of the ‘Samacheer system'. The special leave petition directed against the High Court judgment dated July 18 is likely to the mentioned for early hearing on Thursday. On behalf of students and parents, caveats had also...

Lucknow Many officials passed through the UP Family Welfare Department between 2009-11, the period during which there were massive irregularities in the National Rural Health Mission in the state, as confirmed by a recent review by a Central team. However, one official stayed at the top all along — Pradeep Shukla, a 1981-batch IAS officer, the Principal Secretary of Family Welfare, later also appointed the Mission Director of NRHM. So even...

-The Telegraph   The finance and law ministries have locked horns over who will lead the battle against black money. A meeting of a finance ministry probe team under the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has been put off indefinitely following a Supreme Court order to set up a special investigative team (SIT), headed by former apex court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy, to probe illicit funds. While the panel...