-Livemint.com * A ground report reveals pervasive hunger and undernourishment in rural India awash with returning migrants * Just providing rice and wheat at a highly subsidized price may not be enough when day jobs are scant and families have no cash in hand BANDA: Thanks to an all-familiar power cut in the evening, it’s pitch dark in Jhandupurva village. A few torch lights from smart phones pierce through the darkness and illuminate...

-Livemint.com The list of PDS beneficiaries has not been updated for over five years and excludes many children and women NEW DELHI : It’s well past lunch hour, but 50-year-old Bitaiya is yet to step into her kitchen. Her meagre supply of wheat flour was scraped clean the night before. So, whether she—a daily wage earner whose husband died of tuberculosis a few years ago—and her two children, seven- and 16-year olds,...

  Air quality in North India in general and Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) in particular plunged to its lowest point in recent years during October-November thanks to a variety of factors. Through media reports one comes to know that stubble burning (also called paddy straw burning/ crop residue burning) is chiefly responsible for the public health crisis in India's capital and its nearby regions. Data accessed from the website...

-Livemint.com * A new research paints a mixed picture on the relative merits of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the PDS * The research highlight there can be several ways to authenticate beneficiaries in the public distribution system Since 2017, the Indian government has mandated the use of Aadhaar-based biometrics in India’s public distribution system (PDS) to tackle the longstanding issue of leakages. Critics, however, suggest that this has excluded many beneficiaries and increased...

-Livemint.com In conversation with Guy Standing, economist at the School Of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Neither the Narendra Modi government nor Rahul Gandhi have gotten minimum income scheme right, he says New Delhi: Income support is the big economic idea of the season. While the ruling BJP government announced a limited money transfer scheme targeted at farmers in the recent interim budget, the Congress has proposed to solve the country’s...