-PTI NEW DELHI: Cracking down on erring NGOs, government has cancelled licences of 1,142 NGOs belonging to undivided Andhra Pradesh, under which they get foreign funds, for not filing their annual returns for three consecutive years. The foreigners division of the home ministry has served notices to NGOs on October 16, 2014 for not filing their returns for 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and given time to...

-The Indian Express Given indicators that the government is considering moving to cash transfers and replacing the public distribution system (PDS), and the release of the Shanta Kumar Committee report, the debate on how best to provide food security has been rekindled. The report has a careful analysis of the sources of inefficiency at various stages of the procurement, storage and distribution system. Especially heartening is the admission that the Food...

-The Hindu Delhi, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are India's best-ranked States in terms of gender-related education indicators, new data from the Ministry of Human Resource Development and UNICEF, shows. Using district-level indicators of girls' education, health and social disadvantages, the government aims to identify the most backward pockets of the country, requiring the most attention. "Earlier, we used to look at the gender gap in indicators, and this is narrowing. However this,...

-The Hindu While the rates of sexual violence in India - both reported in official statistics and unreported on the basis of household surveys - are towards the lower end of the global spectrum, data on women's autonomy in India indicate that there is a hidden emergency Having opened up a fresh conversation about the situation of women since the December 16, 2012 gang rape, has India done enough to address the...

-The Hindu Over 3 lakh tonnes of food grain, enough to feed 15 lakh families, is pilfered from ration shops annually Chennai: The quantum of PDS rice pilfered from Tamil Nadu is so high that it is what 15.68 lakh families are entitled to draw free of cost every month. A whopping 3.76 lakh tonnes of rice from the public distribution system goes missing annually. In financial terms, this means a loss of...