The Wire In a country like India where inequality is so prominent, a development scheme can come a cropper if it lacks inclusivity. The Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) was launched in 1993 to enable parliamentarians to directly contribute towards meeting the development demands of their constituency or state. Despite many deficiencies plaguing the scheme, it stood out mainly on account of the principles of social justice and its...

Urgent action needed to curb deadly air pollution in South ASIa A new report by the World Bank states that Nine out of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution are in South ASIa. Ambient air pollution is a public health crisis for South ASIa, not only imposing high economic costs but also causing an estimated 2 million premature deaths each year. The health impacts of air pollution range...

The World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2022, released in December 2022, provides its readers a plethora of useful statistics and data across the countries pertaining to agriculture and food security. The yearbook by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) primarily covers four themes -- Economic Dimensions of Agriculture; Production, Trade and Prices of Commodities; Food Security and Nutrition; and Sustainability and Environmental Aspects of Agriculture.  While going through the report,...

-Press released by Christian Aid dated 27 December, 2022 * Study identifies the year’s 10 costliest extreme events influenced by the climate crisis - each caused more than $3 billion in damage. * Report also examines 10 other extreme events that caused massive human and environmental damage, mostly in the poorest countries. * The floods that submerged parts of Pakistan in June displaced 7m people and caused more than $30 billion in estimated...

-Business Standard If PMGKAY was continued beyond December 2022, at least Rs 40,000 crore would have got spent for three months (Jan to March) The Centre seems to have made a smart move to not only limit its food subsidy outgo, which was going out of hand due to unabated extensions of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) but also saved a good chunk of wheat for effective intervention in the...