-The Hindu Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development slams government laxity in raising amounts. The Centre must increase the “MEAgre” pensions provided for poor senior citizens, widows and disabled people, said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development in its report submitted to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The panel also slammed the government’s “laxity in raising the amount, pointing out that recommendations to increase the sums have been made for the...

-Hindustan Times An affidavit enclosed with the application submitted by YS Malik, principal secretary, mines and geology, in March 2010 said in the Aravallis, opencast mining is followed, and stocks once mined are removed from the site and can never be replenished Haryana has sought the resumption of stone mining in the Aravallis over a decade after the Supreme Court in 2009 suspended extraction of all major and minor minerals in the...

-The Indian Express With a more accurate way of MEAsuring GDP growth, the pace of recovery is much slower in real terms Imagine driving a car whose speedometer cannot tell the current speed but only relative to what it was four hours ago. Apart from the comical encounters with police when stopped for speeding and the predicament in defining a “speed limit”, there is a more fundamental problem it would create. The...

-CaravanMagazine.in In 2005, Maharashtra’s Palghar district became the face of chronic child malnutrition in India as reports emerged of the death of 718 children due to malnutrition. Palghar, a predominantly tribal region, with a 37 percent Adivasi population, is only 114 kilometres away from Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and one of the richest cities in Asia. The next decade saw India’s gross domestic product grow in double digits, enthralling both...

-Scroll.in Old customs and foods no longer have the same MEAning because the rice varieties associated with them are long gone. In Bengali culture, like many other cultures in Asia, “eating rice” is synonymous with “having a MEAl”. The Sanskrit word “anna” and the old Bengali word “odan” MEAn both “rice” and “MEAl”. A standard Bengali expression – “Have you eaten rice?” – is a polite way to inquire, “Have you had...