-The Times of India If what the central government spends on providing healthcare for its own employees is a measure of what decent healthcare costs, what governments (central and states put together) spend for the ordinary citizen is a paltry sixth of that amount. The recently released National Health Accounts (NHA) 2014-15 shows that the average government spend per citizen per year was just Rs 1,108, against almost Rs 6,300 per...

-The Hindu Senior citizens seek exception from registering biometrics in banks Chennai: Many senior citizens visiting banks for providing life certificate for pension and linking their Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts have been put to a lot of hardship. They complained that there was no common rule for banks and each of them was following whatever pattern their head offices had decided. Pensioners Herbert Clay, 69, and his wife Annie Clay, 63, had...

-Scroll.in ‘The primary reason for the abysmally low conviction rate for sedition cases is that the law is MISapplied,’ said senior advocate Sanjay Hegde. The Indian police registered 112 cases of sedition across the country between 2014 and 2016, but only two have led to convictions, according to a report released by the National Crime Records Bureau on Thursday and a government statement in Parliament last year. The National Crime Records Bureau’s annual...

-Down to Earth The MISsion would map various schemes and monitor them real-time The Union Cabinet has finally approved the setting up of National Nutrition MISsion (NNM). A total of  Rs 9,046.17 crore has been allocated for the next three years, commencing from 2017-18. The main agenda of NMM is to address the issue of malnutrition and stunted growth in India. The MISsion would map various schemes and monitor them real-time.  The...

-Down to Earth The local administration in Jharkhand is undermining the decentralised scheme, created to enhance livelihood, manage natural resources and improve basic infrastructure in rural areas Yojna Banao Abhiyan (YBA) was an outcome of two government programmes – MISsion Antodaya (Intensive Participatory Planning Exercise (IPPE-II)) of the Ministry of Rural Development, and Gram Panchayat Development Planning of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. It gave an opportunity to newly elected gram panchayats...