-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has proposed making food fortification mandatory for all staples like rice, wheat flour, edible oil and milk to fight malnutrition but some experts have urged a cautious approach, warning of hidden costs and unproven health benefits. The Telegraph had reported in January 2016 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pushed the idea of universal fortification - addition of key vitamin and minerals to foods to improve...

-The Indian Express The scheme grants Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating women who go for institutional delivery and vaccinate their children. The much-talked about maternity benefit entitlement of Rs 6,000 per woman, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2016, has received a meagre allocation of Rs 2,700 crore. This is not even a quarter of the estimate drawn up by civil society groups that have been long demanding...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With frequent cases of sexual and physical abuse of children reported from preschools, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is ready with guidelines to regulate such private playschools. Once the guidelines are notified by the women and child development ministry, no child below three will be enrolled at a playschool and all such institutions will have to register with the district authorities. Violators will...

-The Hindu Birth certificates not needed any more; grievances will be now handled on Twitter. In a move to speed up and simplify the passport delivery process, the government on Friday announced a series of steps that would help single mothers, orphaned children, and sadhus obtain passports with ease. Announcing the changes that will relax the need for birth certificates in the application process, Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd.) V.K....

-The Times of India There is a trace of pride in Nisha Chaurasiya's voice as she complains of how she and her co-workers in an anganwadi in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh struggled to provide food to babies and children, and to expectant women, since demonetisation took effect on November 8. "The self-help groups borrowed money from everybody, stood in bank queues, pleaded with officials and even spent from their own meagre savings...