-The Hindu While there are well-equipped schemes to address malnutrition, funding and policy gaps are problem areas A few months ago, the Global Hunger Index, reported that India suffers from “serious” hunger, ranked 102 out of 117 countries, and that just a tenth of children between six to 23 months are fed a minimum acceptable diet. The urgency around nutrition was reflected in the Union Finance Minister’s Budget speech, as she referred...

-The Indian Express Some fear such a census will “further marginalise” the descendants of Bengali-speaking migrants in Assam Guwahati: Assam’s Welfare of Minorities Minister Ranjit Dutta has confirmed the state’s plans to implement a census to identify Assam’s ‘khilonjiya’, or indigenous Muslim population, this year. On Tuesday, Dutta will meet with various representatives of the indigenous Assamese Muslim community to seek their “suggestions” in finalising the framework of the census. “A sum of...

-Newsclick.in The Economic Survey 2019-20 indicates that the government’s broad policy direction will remain the same -- of neglecting the social sector and serving the interests of the big businesses. This year’s Economic Survey begins with emphasising the importance of wealth of nations (inspired by Adam Smith) and depicts long-term contributions of the US, China, India and various other countries in world GDP (gross domestic product). The shares of China and India...

-The Hindu NITI Aayog’s draft working paper to strengthen the ICDS programme in urban areas For every 100 anganwadi beneficiaries in the country, only seven are in urban areas, according to the government’s response to a Right to Information (RTI) query from The Hindu. This is primarily because of a severe lack of anganwadis in cities, leading to poor coverage of the government’s flagship programme in early childhood development.   Six services Anganwadis or day-care...

-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: The dairy and animal husbandry sectors are again under focus in the Union budget with the Modi Government setting the ambitious target of doubling milk processing capacity to 108 million tonnes by 2025. Dairy giant such as Amul views the target as a window of opportunity for the dairying sectors and income enhancement for the farmers. R S Sodhi , MD of Amul, told BusinessLine that steps such...