-The Indian Express Modi on July 5 made clear his intention to retain and push the schemes. In a decisive push to the UPA government's Aadhaar project and Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, his office has directed the Planning Commission to collect data on these schemes in 300 priority districts and submit a status report by August 15. According to government sources, the directive was issued...

-Outlook India To the social subsidy whiners, please check corporate write-offs column The TV anchor asked eagerly of Arun Jaitley whether he would take hard decisions or, in the case of a bad drought, revert to loan waivers and (obviously wasteful) subsidies. The finance minister replied that it depended on the situation as it unfolded but he hoped he wouldn't have to return to such steps. "We hope so too," said...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A Constitution bench has ruled that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are entitled to affirmative action in promotions, quashing a 1997 government memo that withdrew the benefit. Friday's verdict by the five-judge Supreme Court bench does not necessarily mean that the Centre and state governments - to which the judgment applies equally - are bound to offer benefits in promotion to all Dalit and tribal employees from...

-The Economic Times The rationale for embedding nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programmes in a development agenda is compelling. And yet, strangely, it has been ignored. Planning and implementation of such programmes require collaborative, consistent and aligned effort across multiple sectors. Currently, we have a myopic vision to pursue narrow agendas. Transformational change requires tackling one of the most obdurate challenges: malnutrition. This blight has a large human impact and a larger economic impact...

-New York Times News Service SHEOHAR (Bihar): He wore thick black eyeliner to ward off the evil eye, but Vivek, a tiny 1-year-old living in a village of mud huts and diminutive people, had nonetheless fallen victim to India's great scourge of malnutrition. His parents seemed to be doing all the right things. His mother still breast-fed him. His family had six goats, access to fresh buffalo milk and a hut filled...