-The New Indian Express Yet another damning report on malnutrition among children in urban slums has made headlines. A study conducted by the Indian NGO Child Rights and You on early childhood has revealed that children living in slums suffer from malnutrition, resulting in underweight and stunted growth. Though the numbers vary from one city to another, there’s very little to cheer about. The percentage of underweight children ranged from 33...

-Hindustan Times Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government will prepare a legal framework for leasing land for agriculture that would not put the land owner at a disadvantage but will provide rights to the lease holder, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Tuesday. Chouhan was addressing the media at the conclusion of an exercise launched by the state government to assess the ground situation against the backdrop of the farming crisis. He said that...

-The Times of India RANCHI: Harsh Mander, the special commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court of India to advise it in the Right to Food case, met chief secretary Rajiv Gauba on Monday and asked the state government to initiate relief measures for the drought-affected farmers in the state where the Kharif crop has suffered damage due to deficit monsoon. Mander was here on his periodic visit to review and assess the...

-Hindustan Times In the 1970s Deng Xiaoping explained that China’s one-child policy was being introduced to ensure “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth”. Last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s Rationale for officially abandoning the policy was the reverse: To ensure economic growth is not wrecked by population decrease. But it is probably too late to change China’s demographic future. China’s population has begun to age — and age...

-The Hindu Despite its uneven history in India, decentralisation is vital to strengthen participatory democracy, facilitate responsive governance and enable public service delivery. Much has been written on decentralisation in India though, on the ground, there is very little to show despite the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments. The Rationale for decentralisation comes from the need to strengthen participatory democracy, facilitate responsive governance, ensure greater accountability and enable public service delivery according to...