-The Times of India CHENNAI: There was no let up to the rain fury in the city and several coastal parts of Tamil Nadu. The city received 34.5cm rain in the past 24 hours. Met officials said the state hasn't been lashed by such a downpour in 100 years. Road and and rail links are down and the airport is flooded. Complaints of patchy to poor mobile phone service have been coming...
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Unshackling the states from central schemes
-Livemint.com A large number of central schemes end up curbing the autonomy of states In some ways, the thunder of finance minister Arun Jaitley’s first full-year budget was stolen by the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) report. Released just a few days before the budget speech was made, the FFC brought in significant changes in state-centre finances by increasing the devolution to states from 32% to 42% of the net Union tax...
More »Rationalist Narendra Dabholkar fought gender bias in temples -Shoumojit Banerjee
-The Hindu Pune: In 2000, he led a campaign demanding entry for women into the Shani Shingnapur temple. The trail-blazing activism by Rationalist firebrand Narendra Dabholkar, who was killed by right-wing elements, and his Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) to combat the ban on women entering temples was a vital phase in the organisation’s untiring efforts to strive for gender equality in Maharashtra. While the struggle commenced with the usual raucous noises...
More »Food insecurity: Fake Ration cards stump PDS dealers in Jharkhand -Sanjoy Dey
-Hindustan Times Ranchi: The Jharkhand government’s hastily rolled out National Food Security Act (NFSA) suffered a major blow after several incidents of multiple fake Ration cards being issued to the same person surfaced, creating a dilemma for dealers under the Public Distribution System (PDS). Jharkhand rolled out the ambitious NFSA in haste from October 1 this year, entitling more than 2.33 crore people of the state’s total 3.29 crore population to 5...
More »Hepatitis C cure may cost as low as Rs 67k -Reema Nagarajan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move that comes as a huge relief to patients of chronic Hepatitis C, the apex committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has granted a waiver of local trials for crucial new direct-acting antiviral drugs treating the disease. The waiver for sofosbuvir and ledipasvir co-formulation and for daclatasvir is expected to bring the generic version of these drugs, which cost a fraction...
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