-Livemint.com It should lay to rest the ongoing debate about this government’s attempt to radically restructure India’s welfare architecture There were no surprises—no helicopter drop of money into Jan-Dhan accounts, no move to dismantle ongoing welfare schemes in favour of a universal basic income (UBI). Far from being the populist, game-changing budget that many had expected, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley presented a sombre, status quo budget which, apart from some tinkering...

-Down to Earth Almost 40 per cent of India's population is minor but the budget allocated to them is a meagre four per cent of the Union budget It was a mid-winter morning when we first met her at the anganwadi centre of Mai, a small village by the bank of the River Ganga in Bihar’s Munger district. The breakfast session at the anganwadi centre was just over, though some of the...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The AAP government spent Rs 30 lakhs on advertisements for student loans' scheme, but only three students got a mere Rs 3.15 lakhs till December last, Swaraj India today claimed, as it sought to rupture the "tall claims" made by the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation in the field of education. The Higher Education and Skill Guarantee Scheme is Delhi government's flagship programme. Addressing a press conference, Yogendra Yadav said doubling of...

-The Hindu In households with a limited food budget, or where there is no refrigerator to store leftover food, the person who eats last very often gets less or lower quality food India has a major child malnutrition problem. The Rapid Survey on Children (2012-13) found that about 4 in 10 children are stunted. On average, children who are stunted do less well in school, earn less, and die sooner than children...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Agriculture and jobs will form the focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's discussions on Tuesday with top economists and experts from India and abroad at a time the government has been criticised for the country's 'jobless growth'. The theme of the Niti Aayog meeting is 'Economic policy: The road ahead', but the PM has asked the premier government thinktank to concentrate on two areas: agriculture and...