-The Times of India Indian households purchased much more food items through the public distribution system (PDS) in 2009-10 than they did five years ago, the 66th National Sample Survey has indicated, raising doubts over the effectiveness of the government’s new direct cash transfer system over a large base. Greater penetration and higher use of the PDS will make it difficult for the government to eventually deliver the Rs 75,000-crore food subsidy...
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Jairam Ramesh, rural development minister interviewed by The Economic Times
-The Economic Times Over the past 15 months, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has made more than 150 visits to 41 of the 82 Naxal-affected districts. Emerging as the government's face in these remote areas, Ramesh talks to ET about the efforts and progress needed to contain the Maoist influence. * Fifteen months of "development" focus in the Naxal-affected areas. What's the progress? It's a mixed bag: some progress in Jharkhand, West...
More »Private leaning -TK Rajalakshmi
-Frontine The finalised chapter on health in the 12th Plan document envisages a large role for the private sector in health care. A chapter on health prepared for the draft 12th Five Year Plan Document in July received a lot of criticism for its limited understanding of universal health care and its diluted commitment to increase public expenditure on health. If the revised version is any indication, there has not been...
More »Surrogacy and homophobia: India bans gay parents -Sandip Roy
-FirstPost.com Aditya Advani always knew that he wanted to have children. He also knew he was gay. Twenty years ago gay marriage was just a fantasy. Few gay couples had children – whether their own or adopted – even in the US where Advani had emigrated. But that did not deter him from bringing up the subject with potential boyfriends such as Michael Tarr, the man who is now his partner. “The...
More »Rapists on prowl in loo-less rural Bihar -Madan Kumar
-The Times of India PATNA: At least 400 women and adolescent girls in Bihar would have escaped rape in 2012 had the state government provided toilets to all the households in the state under the Centre-sponsored Total Sanitation Scheme (TSC), now christened Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). That's official - sort of. According to police records, rape cases averaged 980-odd every year in Bihar between 2006 and 2011. In the year just gone...
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