-Frontline.in An audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India comes down heavily on the Haryana government for its lax implementation of the Beti Bachao scheme. NOTWITHSTANDING the tall claims made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the social and economic sectors (for the year ending 2016) of the Haryana government has revealed huge gaps...

-Bangalore Mirror In Hassan, Kalyanis are being rejuvenated to get water for the parched district When she saw that her district, Hassan, was listed among the 16 permanent drought-prone districts of the state by the Central drought study committee, writer and social worker Rupa Hassan was dismayed. Rupa, who hails from Mysuru and settled in Hassan post-marriage, could not fathom how a green district that has Sakaleshpur of the Western Ghats as...

-The Hindu This is the first time that the Central government has laid down guidelines for labelling genetically modified food All packaged food with at least 5% content from genetically engineered sources need to be labelled so. Moreover, foods that exceed norms of sugar and fat should carry ‘red’ and ‘green’ labels specifying the extent to which they do so, according to draft regulations by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of...

-Economic and Political Weekly A diverse diet based on local foods is the best alternative to feed millions of malnourished children. What young children in anganwadi centres should be fed as supplementary nutrition is once again under the scanner arising from a difference of opinion between the Niti Aayog and the Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi. There were news reports last week indicating that the minister has been pushing...

-Business Standard/ India Spend Delays in wage payment have been a constant throughout MGNREGS implementation Bachcha Lal’s shirt hung loosely over his frail body, exposing his sunken collarbones, as he stood outside his straw-thatched home in central Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Bundelkhand region. “They all rely on me,” he said, pointing towards his tubercular son, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter. Illiterate and a landless labourer, 65-year-old Lal makes about Rs 175 a day when he...