-The Hindu Business Line With several State Governments voicing opposition to the Union Government's National Food Security Act, 2011, which was tabled in Parliament recently, the Union Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution, Prof K V Thomas, said that he will meet the Chief Ministers of the concerned States to allay apprehensions. The Minister said that all the States stood to gain from the proposed bill. Rice will be distributed...
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Council on declining child sex ratio formed
-The Hindu Alarmed over the declining child sex ratio across the country, the Union government has set up a Sectoral Innovation Council to look into the entire gamut of issues connected with the sharp drop in the number of girls per thousand boys in the ages of 0-6. The council will identify interventions that have worked and those which did not and also suggest innovative strategies, approaches and methods of interference to...
More »Muslim groups see ‘minorities' quota as a googly by Vidya Subrahmaniam
The quantum is well below expectations of Muslims who have been pressing for exclusive reservation of 10% The Union government's much-anticipated quota-within-quota sop for minorities as a whole has left Muslim groups confused and groping for answers. On Thursday, the Union Cabinet marked off 4.5 percentage points from within the 27 per cent OBC Central quota, allocating the share to religious minorities, among them Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Jains. (In the 2001...
More »Government hides more than it reveals in the Food Security Bill by Gargi Parsai
The uncertainty over the Lokpal Bill has overshadowed an equally significant National Food Security Bill, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet last week and is to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The Bill has been in the eye of the storm over targeted coverage of beneficiaries as against universalisation in view of the immense ramifications for the aam aadmi , struggling with rising food prices. In the second...
More »Inclusive growth: Malnutrition-education link by DP Chaudhri & Raghbendra Jha
The approach paper for the 12th Five-Year Plan with focus on faster, sustained and inclusive growth is candid and forward-looking. On poverty reduction, the document notes, without comment, the annual trend decline of 0.8% accelerating to 1% during 2004-05 to 2009-10, against a promised target of 2% in the 11th Plan. It emphasises that India will easily meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving poverty by 2015, over 25...
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