-Frontline Two draft Bills on the Tribal Sub-Plan and the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan raise hopes of granting these decades-old schemes statutory status and ensuring allocation of funds in the Central and State budgets for their implementation. IN a significant legislative move, the Union government's Ministry of Tribal Affairs released a draft Bill for the implementation of the long-neglected Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), a special programme mandated by the Planning Commission to benefit the...

-The Hindu Business Line The South Asian population has been growing at the rate of 1.5 per cent per annum, and agricultural production at 2.5 per cent per annum has been keeping pace with the demographic trends, thereby creating the necessary provision for food. Yet, the inherent problems of distribution have loomed large for South Asia. India's National Food Security Act, 2013, emphasises defining certain target groups and highlights the importance...

-National Academy of Agricultural Sciences After almost 67 years of Independence, malnutrition continues to plague India. Even while vast segments of resource-poor people suffer from undernutrition, particularly micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger), there is a growing incidence of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer etc. Both the ends of this grim spectrum are at least partly due to changing food habits, loss of millets from the diet being one...

-Down to Earth It can help reduce diarrhoea prevalence by 47 per cent among children Better sanitation facilities can significantly help improve children's health. A World Bank report, published on January 6, states that prevalence of diarrhoea can be reduced by 47 per cent among children if they are provided improved sanitation facilities at home as well as in their community. The report, Sanitation and Externalities, analysed the data of 206,414 children under...

-The Hindu Journalism, which is often characterised by "superficiality and dilettantism," will benefit greatly from the contributions of scholars covering serious issues such as the agrarian crisis in India, according to N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi and Sons, which publishes The Hindu. Delivering a lecture on ‘News Media and Agrarian Issues' at the Tenth Anniversary Conference of the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) Mr. Ram urged scholars and specialists to conduct workshops for...