To banish hunger and malnutrition from the country, Parliament is likely to pass the National Food Security Bill (NFSB). In our earlier article on this issue, Can we Afford Rs 6-Lakh-Cr Food Subsidy Bill in 3 Yrs? (ET, December 17, 2011), we concentrated on the likely financial implication that we estimated at roughly Rs 6,00,000 crore over a period of three years. In this piece, we address the operational challenges...
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Only six per cent of elementary education budget spent on children, points out survey by Aarti Dhar
Interventions aimed directly at children — providing free textbooks, uniforms and addressing out of school children – account only for 6 per cent of the total investment in elementary education. The largest investment — 78 per cent — of the education budget in India is invested in teachers and management costs while the next largest spending, to the tune of 14 per cent, is done on creating school infrastructure. Only...
More »Laptop scheme exposes gaps in system by Vidya Padmanabhan
The scheme seeks to add a superstructure of digital empowerment without laying an adequate foundation Until recently, S. Dhibeka, 16, who had never used a computer until she chose the computer science stream last year at the aging, leafy Kakkalur Government Higher Secondary School near Chennai, could practise programming for only an hour or two a week, often sharing a desktop computer with one or more of her classmates. But since September,...
More »Putting Growth In Its Place by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen
It has to be but a means to development, not an end in itself Is India doing marvellously well, or is it failing terribly? Depending on whom you speak to, you could pick up either of those answers with some frequency. One story, very popular among a minority but a large enough group—of Indians who are doing very well (and among the media that cater largely to them)—runs something like...
More »HRC directs Orissa to report on 'man-made' flood, civil society for flood plain management by Nageshwar Patnaik
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Orissa government asking it to submit a detailed report on the alleged "man-made" floods in the last in August-September. The disaster had officially claimed over 80 lives and damaged houses and agricultural lands in 21 districts. The NHRC's direction came following petition filed by Bhubaneswar-based India Media Centre, a voluntary organisation. Water resources secretary, chief engineer of irrigation department and Hirakud...
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