-The Telegraph New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has disapproved of the process the Planning Commission and the Centre follow to identify below poverty line (BPL) people, adding to the recent controversy over a 15 per cent reduction in poverty. The standing committee on finance, headed by the BJP's Yashwant Sinha, has outlined flaws in the methodology followed by the Planning Commission and the government to identify the poor. The measure is key...

-One World South Asia The mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar has drawn attention directly to the way we articulate and work for educational entitlements, writes Parvinder Singh and Priyanka Sarkar. Lucknow: It takes an informed and empowered community to harvest the fruits of educational entitlements, including non-discriminatory access to midday meals. The promises made in the Right to Education Act can only be wrested as rights when they are owned by the...

-Down to Earth Government claims a huge drop in poverty numbers but critical indicators-health, malnutrition and wages-continue to be grim. So how did the poor fare better? After a long, long time there was good news to splash as media led with the report of a record 21.9 per cent drop in poverty levels. The July 24 newspaper headlines were celebratory as they reported the Planning Commission's findings that poverty rates...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union government is for the first time mulling a policy to use cash and food incentives to encourage patients with tuberculosis to complete treatment and reduce the risk of spread of drug-resistant TB. The ministry of health and family welfare, concerned at the large number of patients who discontinue free treatment provided by the government, is preparing a proposal to provide free ration and compensation for missed...

-Outlook The anti-poverty programme politics dictate that the number of poor are kept low.   I don't think the Planning Commission's poverty numbers are credible for several reasons: growth has decelerated; NREGA hasn't been as successful in targeting the poor as generally asserted; nor has the PDS benefited the poor significantly. The first phase of the UPA saw some macroeconomic reforms but not the second phase. Also, the poverty lines worked out...