The World Bank has backed a controversial proposal to replace foodgrain allotment under the public distribution system with a system of direct cash transfer. The bank, which supports social security schemes in India, today said poverty reduction had been low and overall returns on spending to eradicate poverty had “not reached their full potential”. It attributed the low reduction to “high leakage” in the PDS system and its weak implementation mechanism. Earlier,...

-Express News Service   Even as the State government readies for land acquisition for the Posco steel project, the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), which is spearheading a movement against the project, has announced that it would oppose the process. To add to the woes, the United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-Posco outfit, has threatened not to cooperate with the Jagatsinghpur district administration for the land acquisition.   PPSS president Abhay Sahu told...

To prevent starvation deaths and malnutrition To ensure that no starvation death takes place and people are saved from malnutrition as far as possible, the Supreme Court on Saturday directed the Centre to release five million tonnes of foodgrains immediately for distribution in 150 most poverty-stricken districts or other poorer segments in the country. Though it was a holiday for the court, a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma held...

Eleven years after he came to power in 2000 and regularly refuting charges of numerous scams and scandals that rocked the image of his government, Orissa chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik now finds himself in the dock. After the Supreme Court’s direction on Monday for the CBI probe into the alleged `500-crore scam in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), an eerie silence...

History has been made in this year's civil services' results. In a rare first, the top two candidates are women. Topper S Divyadharshini is an alumnus of Dr Ambedkar Law University in Chennai. Sweta MoHAnty, who did her B Tech in computer science from Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRIET), Hyderabad, has come second. The merit list boasts of five women candidates in the top 25. R V Varun Kumar,...