-Frontline The midday meal scheme is a grand idea in a flawed school system. "THEY played here, studied here and got buried here!" (Yahin khela, yahin padha aur yahin ho gaya dafan). With these emphatic words, grieving parents buried the bodies of two children within the compound of the Dharmasati Gandaman Primary School of Masharakh block in Saran district of Bihar. This sentiment was expressed with great dignity even in the...

-The Hindu Building on the work by RTI activists, India needs to set up a mechanism that can make for accountability on the sources and utilisation of party funds Throughout the world, political parties collect funds to build and sustain the organisation, to train party cadres and fight elections. Recognising that they are the main link to the citizens (as voters) and, by implication, the mainstay of democracy, many countries, including India,...

-The Indian Express India is at the point where a low income democracy cannot afford to ignore the hungry Is India's food security ordinance supportable? The debate has been vigorous. It will help to separate the questions of process from those of principle. Whether an ambitious scheme of this magnitude should have been brought in as an executive ordinance or as a new law after parliamentary debate, is basically a procedural question. It...

-The Times of India LONDON: The fight against stunting - the world's most urgent nutritional challenge - got a big boost through a global agreement signed by world leaders in London on Saturday. The Global Nutrition for Growth Compact signed by countries and global leaders committed to reduce the number of children under five who are stunted by an additional 20 million in developing countries like India by 2020. At present stunting...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Come July and our babus will be back in school. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) will begin an e-governance training module called the e-Governance Executive Training Programme (eGEP). This is the first such national-level programme for officers at the level of under secretary, section officer, deputy director, assistant director, tehsil and block level officer or equivalent. They will be nominated by their department...