-Civil Society News New Delhi: In 1974, Dr Samir Chaudhuri, a paediatrician working in Kolkata’s slums, founded Child in Need Institute (CINI) to tackle the many dimensions of child malnutrition. It struck him at the time that malnutrition wasn’t just a clinical problem but a complex phenomenon rooted in gender issues. Over the years, led by Dr Chaudhuri, CINI developed deep understanding of the social, economic and political underpinnings of malnutrition...

-CaravanMagazine.in The economist Jean Drèze’s book, Sense and Solidarity, published in late 2017, deals with the impact of Aadhaar on social-welfare programmes, such as the National Food Security Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, among other things. Drèze was a member of the United Progressive Alliance government’s advisory council, which designed the NFSA and MGNREGS. He co-authored some of the essays in this book with colleagues and...

-The Economic Times In over a decade, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been instrumental in providing employment to rural households. One of its key provisions is that once the work week is completed, the worker must be paid within 15 days. Millions depend on the timely payment of these wages. The payments process has made many strides in the last decade, from cash payments to wages being...

-Business Standard The task force also highlighted that companies had been misused to channel unaccounted cash after demonetisation in November 2016 Mumbai: The government’s task force has arrived at a formula to define a ‘shell company’, a move critical for enforcement agencies to crack down on dubious entities exploiting the regulatory framework. According to sources, the task force has listed 18 key parameters, including beneficial ownership and the nature of business dealings, to...

-The Indian Express The decision puts to an end a long-drawn disagreement between Maneka and NITI Aayog, with the former batting for packaged nutrients and the latter wanting to substitute food with cash given to beneficiaries through direct benefit transfer. The National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges has rejected Woman and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi’s longstanding, much-debated proposal to provide packaged nutrients to replace the existing take-home rations across 14 lakh-odd...