-Express News Service   A Delhi government pilot study to test waters in the cash-for-food scheme is facing stiff resistance. NGO Parivartan, led by RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, raised questions on Thursday about the move. Another NGO, which has been entrusted with the pilot study, has, meanwhile, alleged that Parivartan workers have threatened the families who are part of the study. The pilot study, involving 500 households in Raghubir Nagar, West Delhi, is...

The Delhi government might be the first in the country to implement the cash-transfer scheme, replacing the existing public distribution system (PDS). The Food and Civil Supplies Department is in the final round of discussions with the Union government on the issue. Though the Delhi government had put forward this proposal almost three years ago, it had been in cold storage ever since. The project has now been revived. Central Delhi,...

Government undecided on criteria to identify families below poverty line A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor households. As a consequence, the BPL survey that was to...

As Madhya Pradesh begins to harvest a bumper wheat crop, the state is finding that measures put in place to ensure that the powerful do not game the system are having the unintended effect of keeping out the most marginalised. In anticipation of a bumper harvest, the MP government announced a Rs 100 bonus that it would pay wheat farmers above the central government-fixed Minimum Support Price of Rs 1,120. "It...

Scale Up Nutrition coordinates global action to root out under-nutrition. This week in New Delhi, nearly 1,000 international officials, scientists, advocates and development specialists are coming together to discuss how agriculture can be leveraged to improve nutrition and health. Nearly one-sixth of the people in our world are affected by chronic hunger. At any time, around a quarter of all children suffer from under-nutrition. Not only are they more likely to die,...