-The Telegraph Hazaribagh: A 40-year-old mother of two died of starvation at Hazaribagh Sadar Hospital this morning, two days after her daughter died of the same reason at their village home 7km from district headquarters, in a country where National Food Security Bill, 2013, received Presidential assent on September 10. Despite so-called safety nets - existing flagship welfare provisions such as BPL card, MGNREGS and a host of other subsidy, pension, assistance,...

-The Pioneer Forget about doling out mandatory unemployment allowance under the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), majority of the Congress-ruled States in the country are yet to notify unemployment allowance rules under the UPA's flagship rural job scheme launched in 2007. The rules mandate the States to pay the daily allowance to a registered worker if he is not provided a job within 15 days of the receipt...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Even as minority politics takes centrestage in the wake of recent riots in Uttar Pradesh, a report by the Council for Social Development shows how the UPA government has failed to implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee, with its response to Muslim deprivation at best being "cautious and minimalist". The report said most of the benefits intended for minorities were being cornered by either...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday expressed concern over the rising number of slum-dwellers due to rapid urbanization and said even private entities would be given financial support to construct houses for the urban poor under the UPA's 'Slum Free India' scheme. "Today, we have 90.6 million people living in slums and this could swell up to 100.4 million by 2017," the PM said after handing over...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Flagging the challenge of raising foodgrain production, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today promised all assistance to states for improving agricultural growth. "It's a challenging job to increase production of foodgrains and other crops for the growing population of the country, especially, because agriculture is still dependent on monsoon in large parts of the country," he said, addressing a gathering of farmers, who arrived here as part of a nationwide...