-The New Indian Express BENGALURU: The Narendra Modi government, which has recently cut the funds to the state for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), has now limited the scheme to cover just 69 most backward taluks. According to an official source, the Union Ministry of Rural Development has sent a communication to the state government asking it to focus on the most backward taluks, instead of all...

-The Hindu Business Line Report lauds rapid progress in health indicators, especially in Maharashtra India is making rapid strides in overcoming the problem of malnutrition, with the number of stunted children under the age of five declining by over 10 million, says a ‘Global Nutrition Report'. The "first-ever comprehensive narrative on global health and country-level progress toward reducing malnutrition", brought out by a consortium of nations, organisations, researchers, and academics, covers each of...

-Economic and Political Weekly The current regime seeks to reform labour laws with the understanding that these reforms will improve industrial growth and expand the possibilities of enterprise. However, there is already ample evidence from within India that this obsession with reforming labour law, particularly in the way the government has done it till now, will not take us any closer in creating more jobs or a healthy industrial sector. These...

-NDTV The Chhattisgarh government is guilty, at the least, of culpable homicide for the deaths of over a dozen women in government-run sterilisation camps in the last few days. But the government and in particular the Health Minister think they can escape from their own responsibility by arresting the doctor who did the operations and setting up a judicial enquiry. Really? You need a judicial enquiry to tell you that the targets you...

-Deccan Herald India's woes with malnutrition is little to do with poverty or food insecurity, but is exasperated by inadequacies in child care, feeding information and awareness, the latest World Bank report has said. "Appropriate infant and young child feeding practices even in the highest wealth quintile are extremely poor. Effective interventions, which cover the three critical determinants, when provided at scale during the first 1,000 days of life, can reduce stunting...