-PTI Itanagar: To implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 more effectively, the state government has constituted the Arunachal Pradesh State Food Commission (APSFC). Exercising the powers conferred under section 16 of NFSA, the state governor has delegated the Arunachal Pradesh State Information Commission as the State Food Commission with its supporting staff to discharge the work of the regulatory body for hearing of consumer grievances under the Act, an official...

-The Indian Express Housing activists say that a heavy reliance on private sector is the prime reason for poor pace of implementation of the PMAY New Delhi: A year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) with the stated purpose of constructing two crore houses for the urban poor by 2022—at the rate of 30 lakh houses per year— merely 1,623 houses have been constructed so far. The...

-The Hindu Move to give nutrition supplements to anganwadi children draws flak. Bengaluru: Can two grams of a plant-based dietary supplement substitute a wholesome balanced meal for anganwadi children? With the Women and Child Development Department all set to administer Spirulina to severely malnourished children, activists and nutritionists are battling for a wholesome meal instead. As announced in the State Budget, the department has decided to administer two gm of Spirulina for 180 days...

-The Hindu Confining it to just the Ministry of Rural Development would be the most retrograde step in democratic decentralisation in over a quarter century. If, as The Hindu’s exclusive on Wednesday indicates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to close down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, it would confirm one’s worst fears about his government’s hypocritical approach to grass-roots democracy for grass-roots development. This was a lacuna that was evident in the ‘Gujarat...

-Ideas for India The National Food Security Act was passed in 2013. This column reports findings from a recent survey on the status of the Act in six of India’s poorest states. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal are doing quite well - the PDS is in good shape and most people are covered; however, Bihar and Jharkhand are yet to complete essential PDS reforms. A survey of the National Food...