-The Times of India MUMBAI: Nearly 40% of deaths registered among girls (0 to 6 years) in the city between 2010 and 2014 have been due to lack of proper nutrition, revealed a central government report. The corresponding figure for Thane district was 64%. The findings stated that the Maharashtra government spent Rs 4,500 crore on improving Child Health in the last five years. In Mumbai and Thane, the percentages of moderately and...

-The Telegraph   Tribal ministry to cover 6 lakh children of indigenous communities in Assam     Guwahati: The Union tribal affairs ministry, with the help of the health department, is planning to cover at least six lakh tribal children in Assam, including those of tea garden workers, under its sickle-cell anaemia screening programme this year. Sickle-cell anaemia is a blood disorder characterised by an abnormality in haemoglobin that carries oxygen from the lungs to...

-Economic and Political Weekly The states now have an opportunity to set their own priorities in the social sector. In the constitutional scheme of things, it is the states rather than the centre which bear the larger responsibility for social sector spending. Indeed, the states already account for as much as 80% of total outlays in the area. But central government intervention in the form of establishment of and funding for certain...

-Economic and Political Weekly Direct benefi t transfers in the form of cash cannot replace the supply of food through the public distribution system. Though it is claimed otherwise, DBT does not address the problems of identifying the poor ("targeting") and DBT in place of the PDS will expose the vulnerable to additional price fluctuation. Further, if the PDS is dismantled, there will also be no need or incentive for procurement...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Women and Child Development The Union Minister of Women and Child Development , Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi held a meeting with Ms Melinda Gates , co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in New Delhi today.The discussions centred arounda potential partnership to address India’s burden of maternal and childhood malnutrition, among other shared priorities. Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi spoke about the plans to launch the National...