-FnBNews   The World Bank, like many analysts, is in favour of cash-transfer of subsidy for foodgrains to the poor in India. This suggestion was made in a recent report on Social Protection for a Changing India, drafted by the World Bank for the Government of India. Using the National Sample Survey data, the report stated that the Public Distribution System (PDS) continued to absorb substantial public resources at almost 1 per...

Expressing disappointment with a Supreme Court order that reversed a Madhya Pradesh High Court judgment on rehabilitation and resettlement of adult sons of the Omkareshwar dam displaced people, the Madhya Pradesh unit of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on Thursday said it would file a review plea. “These cases were filed by the Madhya Pradesh government against High Court orders that favoured proper rehabilitation under the land-for-land policy for dam-displaced people,”...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has asked the Centre to ensure payment of the statutory minimum wages to domestic workers. In a note sent on May 4 to the government, which is framing a national policy for domestic workers, the council asked it to enshrine the right to pay without gender discrimination as laid down in the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976. Domestic workers were on a par with other workers...

The Planning Commission has defended the poverty line cut-off and urged the Supreme Court not to “interfere with the methodology developed by experts over the years to estimate the incidence of poverty.” However, it left a window for the court to direct an upward revision of the limit —daily consumption expenses per head of Rs 20 in urban areas and Rs 15 in rural areas at 2004-2005 prices — saying “these...

Massive grain procurement to meet the requirements under the proposed national food security law could drive out the private sector and have larger implications on the state of the domestic procurement market, a study on food and nutritional security has warned. Apart from impacting exports and cereal price in the open market, rising public procurement will only make it costly to buy, store, transport and distribute grain, the study said, adding...