-Reuters LONDON: Poverty and the all-consuming fretting that comes with it require so much mental energy that the poor have little brain power left to devote to other areas of life, according to the findings of an international study published on Thursday. The mental strain could be costing poor people up to 13 IQ (intelligence quotient) points and means they are more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions that amplify and...
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More bite, less to chew -Latha Jishnu, Jyotika Sood and Suchitra M
-Down to Earth The most controversial aspect of the food security law is the restructuring of the public distribution system to cover an unprecedented 67 per cent of the population, most of them in the poorer states. LATHA JISHNU, JYOTIKA SOOD and SUCHITRA M explain why there are winners and losers in the new dispensation and how states with better PDS will have to find huge resources to keep their numbers...
More »The unaccounted costs of targeting-Martin Ravallion
-The Indian Express A degree of targeting is useful in ensuring that policies are effective in reducing poverty. But we have to be careful how this is done. With the right policies, India has a good chance of seeing accelerated poverty reduction in the coming decades. As I have previously argued, this will require that India does a better job in reaching the country's many poor people through its social policies. However,...
More »Integrity of Plan expenditure doubtful, says CAG -Pradeep Thakur
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a report on Union government accounts tabled in Parliament last week, the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) has raised serious questions on the government's claim of its expenditure, saying the "integrity of the data provided to audit on Plan expenditure was doubtful". There is huge variation in Plan expenditure as per data maintained by different wings of the government. According to the finance accounts, the...
More »Food Security Bill on shaky turf -KP Prabhakaran Nair
-The New Indian Express In 1948 when the United Nations passed the covenant ensuring the right to food, vis-à-vis the right to proper livelihood, to which India became a signatory, it did not envisage that the whole issue would be caught up in such an imbroglio - political and economic - as one witnesses today. The original covenant in article 25 ensures the "right to work and livelihood" and right to...
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