-The Business Standard Make schemes mobile and portable, by focusing on people and not products India spends close to four per cent of its GDP on an alphabet soup of welfare schemes and subsidies - it has become a Welfare State before becoming a developed state. Despite its significant costs, India's welfare system is neither comprehensive nor very effective - subject to huge leakages and corruption, and not well knit into...

-Press Information Bureau The Ministry of Women and Child Development has fast tracked the formulation of the National Mission to tackle mal-nutrition. This Mission is now the flagship programme of the Ministry and is very high on the national agenda of the government. In order to formulate the detailed contours of the Mission and to examine innovative interventions which can be put into place to tackle the problem of malnutrition, a...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has expressed grief over the national loss in valuable human resources which is owed to the rising tendency of young people to commit suicide when facing seemingly unconquerable adversity. Inaugurating a mass contact programme in Thrissur, Kerala, today to conscientise the general public about the increasing rate of suicides, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "The mounting incidence of...

-Down to Earth While the state government aims to cut costs, children in remote tribal areas will be most affected After repeatedly putting off a decision on the matter, the Maharashtra government has finally decided to close down some 13,905 schools which have a student count of less than 20. Notices to this effect have already been sent to education officers in the state. Officials in the state's Directorate of Primary Education...

-The Business Standard PlanCom meets this month to hasten implementation; initial focus on target coverage might cover 300 districts After reposing faith in the Aadhaar project at its cabinet meeting last week, the Narendra Modi government wants Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) to 80% of beneficiaries in five key schemes "as soon as possible". These include the cooking gas subsidy, where DBT was stalled under the previous government. The other schemes are on transfer...