One man’s fiscal problem is another man’s lifeline. Trigger happy bureaucrats and economists may love shooting down subsidies because it bloats the fiscal deficit and burdens the government but the simple fact is that in a one billion strong nation, in which nearly one in every three live below the poverty line, one needs an effective and efficient method through which privileged tax payers can support the poor. Last week, finance...

India’s decision-makers seem to find it difficult to see that there are children in the country. Being unable to see them, they are unable to perceive that they are hungry. In an age when we are able to use euphemisms like ‘under-nutrition’, this is perhaps not surprising. But it is disgraceful none the less.   This country has a large population of children. Fortyone per cent of its total numbers. The national...

-Pragativadi.com The Odisha government on Thursday declared 13,032 villages, which suffered a crop loss of 50 percent, in 19 districts as drought affected and announced a special package for farmers.  The drought areas are spread over 133 blocks and 156 wards of 34 urban local bodies in 19 of the 30 districts of the state, revenue and disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patra told reporters here after attending a high-level review meeting...

Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh fare better India is now ranked among the 50 nations with highest under-five child mortality rate. It has been placed at number 46 in the list of 193 countries. India’s neighbours Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh protect their newborns much better and rank 52, 59 and 61 respectively, according to Unicef’s latest ranking. The report—State of the world’s children 2012: children in an urban world— was released on...

Modern India continues to be plagued by social and health ills like child marriage, early motherhood and domestic violence.  Latest data in the "State of the World's Children report 2012" released by Unicef on Wednesday shows that almost 22% women in India, who are now aged between 20 and 24 years gave birth to a child before they turned 18.  Almost 45 among every 1,000 births are born to mothers in the...