-The Hindu There will be a unified national database of beneficiaries that can be updated in real-time and automatically trigger new benefits. The government has drawn up an ambitious plan to scale up the present regime for direct transfer of benefits to the poor under various welfare schemes, by creating a unified national database of beneficiaries that can be updated in real-time and automatically trigger new benefits such as vaccine shots for...

-The Indian Express ICDS, the primary scheme targeting malnutrition, needs to be broadened with the help of the National nutrition Mission. Every once in a while, a discussion or debate starts on malnutrition. On a debated issue, precision is desirable. Initially, there were several discussions on the word “malnutrition”, which can technically mean over-nutrition, as well as under-nutrition. But now, there is global consensus on three terms. First, for a given reference age,...

-The Indian Express As it completes 10 years, there is enough evidence to show that India needs the MGNREGA Nearly a year ago, the prime minister made a statement in Parliament about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). He said: “My political understanding tells me, don’t ever stop MNREGA… because MNREGA is a living monument to your [the Congress’s] failures. After 60 years of independence, you had to...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The ongoing strike by municipal workers in Delhi has deprived a majority of over 12 lakh poor students of their daily nutrition in the form of mid-day meals. Officials said since teachers were either not reporting to work or not teaching, the attendance in 1,860 municipal schools had gone down and affected the distribution of mid-day meals. The mid-day meal scheme is a government programme designed to improve the...

-Economic and Political Weekly Health and nutrition indicators have improved, but remain unacceptably low. After a hiatus of a decade, we now have up-to-date information on the health and nutrition status of the population. Preliminary results for 13 states and two union territories of the much awaited National Family Health Survey–4 (NFHS–4) which was conducted in 2015–16—the first after NFHS–3 of 2005–06—have just been released. In a welcome development, NFHS–4, for the...