The country's main planning body will overhaul of the system of village panchayat in the next Five-Year Plan period to improve its functioning and check siphoning of funds meant for social sector programmes. Over 250,000 panchayats or village councils in the country collectively handle about Rs 90,000 crore in social sector funds every year, but embezzlement by village representatives often prevents the benefits of welfare schemes from reaching the needy. To remedy...
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Revised draft of food Bill gives primacy to cash transfers, coupons by Gargi Parsai
Social activists up in arms against proposed reforms; impact on procurement feared The Union Government's new move to give primacy in the revised draft of the National Food Security Bill, 2011, to controversial schemes like cash transfers and issuance of food coupons to identified public distribution system beneficiaries in lieu of foodgrain entitlements has got social activists up in arms. The scheme was introduced under ‘Schedule II' in the initial draft of...
More »Toilet Day: Women economists urge action by Alka Pande
-IBNS A group of about 35 women economists from different countries of Europe, UK, US, Australia and India, have written an open letter to Prime Ministers and Presidents of South Asian nations, including India, which are facing acute sanitation crisis. From India, Jayati Ghosh, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Bina Agarwal, Director, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University and Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson Board of Governors, Indian...
More »Jairam Ramesh seeks CAG’s help to plug job scheme loopholes
-The Times of India Rural development ministerJairam Ramesh has written to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai seeking focused attention to the government's Rs 40,000-crore expenditure on MGNREGS, the flagship rural employment guarantee scheme, and to evaluate funds utilization by states. The minister has highlighted some deviations made by some states in his communication to the CAG, while requesting the auditor to make suggestions that could help the government "establish...
More »Reviving Universal PDS: A Step Towards Food Security by Suranjita Ray
An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...
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