-The Economic Times In the leaky system of welfare delivery, databases are the newest valve that governments are installing to ensure that benefits reach those-and only those -they are intended for. Since December 2012, for instance, the government of Madhya Pradesh has been appending on to the Centre's Socio Economic and Caste Census a host of household-level data: bank account numbers, NREGA card numbers, welfare entitlements, land ownership, whether their house is...
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Social media rife with inflammatory material in Muzaffarnagar-Omar Rashid
-The Hindu Allahabad: Even as the Uttar Pradesh government blamed the circulation of a fake video on social media for aggravating communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, inflamattory and communally inciting material continued to be spread widely on social networking sites and applications. Newspapers reports, morphed with inflammatory headlines, were widely circulated through various groups on Twitter, Facebook and other mediums of social media on Monday. Two widely circulated posts were picture clippings from...
More »Do crop intensification techniques hold the key to food security?-Caspar van Vark
-The Guardian Indian farmers have seen increased yields not just in rice but also in wheat cultivation. Could SCI curb hunger in low-resource communities? Yields achieved under the system of rice intensification (SRI) have made headlines in recent years, with one farmer in India reported to have produced a record-breaking 22.4 tonnes from one hectare of land in 2011. But why stop at rice? Farmers and NGOs have found that the same...
More »India has 40% of world’s child brides, survey finds -Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Jhumki's (name changed) red and white sakha-pola (wedding bangles) and sindoor jar sharply with her starched uniform. She was forced by her father to marry when she was barely 11 but she feels lucky to be allowed to attend school. Forty-six per cent of women (between the ages of 18 and 29) in India were married before the age of 18, according to the National Family...
More »Fewer PCOs lead to sharp drop in child helpline calls -Namita Devidayal
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For the longest time, most calls that came to Childline would be from a kid on a railway platform asking for help after a brutal police beating or desperately looking for shelter. But the decline of public call offices (PCOs) across the country have led to a sharp drop in calls from marginalized children to India's first toll-free helpline for children in distress. The decline...
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