The National Advisory Council's move to restrict universalisation of the PDS to the most disadvantaged districts may ultimately end up limiting its impact. RECENT weeks have seen rather contradictory statements on the challenge of ensuring food security and the set of feasible initiatives for managing the food economy. To start with, the National Advisory Council (NAC), which recognises the need for a universal public distribution system (PDS), and which was expected to...

It is estimated that food grain worth Rs 60,000 crore have been left to rot. Who is responsible? This figure is highly exaggerated. According to a study by the agriculture ministry, only 0.004 percent of stored food grain are rotten. There were 11,708 tonnes of damaged and non-issuable food grain in Food Corporation of India (FCI) depots. However, the whole lot hasn’t become spoilt. This quantity has become non-issuable to...

Delhi MPs have failed to make optimum use of funds under MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme, clocking up a utilisation rate of just 86.93%, well below the national average of 90.32%. According to a report of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, Delhi was placed among laggard states when it came to utilisation of funds till July this year. Since the MPLAD scheme was launched in 1993, total...

Bengal has the largest proportion of teenage mothers in the country, according to a data sheet prepared by the family planning division of the Union health ministry. The grim statistics emerged on a day the Lok Sabha discussed ways to control population and some MPs found merit in Sanjay Gandhi’s iron-fist policy. But Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad hastened to say “once bitten, twice shy” to make clear forcible measures...

Ergonomics is no longer the privilege of those working in plush offices. If things fall in place, Rajasthan may be the first state to take it to the absolute grassroots -- at the NREGA worksite. In a pathbreaking move, the MIT Institute of Design in Pune, under the National Knowledge Commission, has taken the plunge for fine-tuning traditional tools used for digging and moving earth specially in NREGA so as...