-Oxfam India Oxfam India launches food justice bulletin along with the Institute of development Studies (IDS), calls for assessing government's commitment to hunger Despite enormous growth in economic and political power, 46 per cent of Indian children are malnourished, and 1 in 3 of the world’s hungry live in India. Yet India stands on the threshold of potentially the largest step toward food justice the world has ever seen, as the National...

-The Hindu The State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for a sustained month-long campaign across West Bengal in August to highlight its demand for the incorporation in the Centre’s proposed Food Security Bill provision for a universalised public distribution system that ensures a monthly allocation of at least 35 kg of foodgrains per family at the rate of Rs. 2 per kg. Demands like remunerative prices to...

-Press Information Bureau I am very happy to release the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Sameeksha, brought out by the Ministry of Rural Development. This is an innovative way of looking at our development programmes. I compliment Shri Jairam Ramesh for taking the initiative to reach out to scholars in different parts of our country to apply their minds to analysis of what is being achieved, what is possible, what is not yet...

-The Economic Times The positive impact on agricultural wages and distress migration from rural areas not withstanding, the government's flagship rural employment scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, leaves a lot to be desired for. This is evident from the rural development ministry's compendium of more than 100 major research papers on the programme, MGNREGA Sameeksha. The slim 120-odd page volume, which is to be released by the Prime Minister...

-The Telegraph Beggars can’t be choosers — not even when it comes to quitting. The Centre plans to photograph and collect the fingerprints of the country’s estimated 7.3 lakh beggars for a proposed national database to launch a scheme aimed at ending the practice and offering sources of livelihood. The Union ministry of social justice is overseeing the project and has asked states to furnish details on beggars for the database. “A rehabilitation package...