-The Hindustan Times The passage of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) made 2013 a landmark year for the right to food in India. It was a small but significant step in the battle against hunger. If the year was witness to the emergence of a political consensus, nationally, on the right to food, the next year will need to be characterised more by action and not just intent. The principal challenge in...
More »SEARCH RESULT
India Rural Development Report 2012/13 launched
-Press Information Bureau The India Rural Development Report 2012/13 was released here by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development, Government of India. The Report was prepared by IDFC Foundation in collaboration with network partners, the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), the Institute for Rural Management Anand (IRMA), and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), with contributions from several other researchers, experts and civil society organisations. On...
More »Database error: Why Delhi's failed experiment shows government should not use them -M Rajshekhar
-The Economic Times In the leaky system of welfare delivery, databases are the newest valve that governments are installing to ensure that benefits reach those-and only those -they are intended for. Since December 2012, for instance, the government of Madhya Pradesh has been appending on to the Centre's Socio Economic and Caste Census a host of household-level data: bank account numbers, NREGA card numbers, welfare entitlements, land ownership, whether their house is...
More »Talk about food - The coming battle over beneficiaries -Nitin Sethi
-The Hindu If the UPA believes it possesses one flagship that can help it sail through the electoral battle in 2014, it has to be the National Food Security Bill. The Congress's political messaging is certain to be built on its parenthood for a scheme that promises a nationwide legal right to food and nutrition for large numbers. But its hope of deriving political mileage from this law would be pitted against States...
More »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 »