-Down to Earth Secretary for food processing denies any knowledge of Harsimrat Kaur Badal speaking to PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi to provide processed food under nutrition scheme for school children Media reports about the government holding talks with the multi-national beverage company, PepsiCo, to provide processed food under the Mid Day Meal scheme, has angered food rights and child rights activists. They are planning to organise protests against any such move. The reports followed...

-The Hindu Planning was a vision, a part of the nationalist movement and its history goes back to a many stranded dream of linking knowledge and power to serve society The old aphorism "old soldiers never die, they just fade away" might also be a story of the fate of most institutions. However, it was not true of the Planning Commission, which was terminated brusquely. This Independence day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi...

A recent study published in the prestigious science journal 'PLOS One' (August 2014) shows that Central programmes like National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), and state-level initiatives like Yeshasvini health insurance scheme (Karnataka), Vajpayee Aarogyasri health insurance scheme (Karnataka), Rajiv Aarogyasri scheme (Andhra Pradesh), Chief Minister's Insurance Scheme for Life Saving Treatment (Tamil Nadu) etc. did little to reduce the financial burden arising out of...

-The Hindu The Planning Commission needed to be returned to its first purposes, to its transparent and audacious planning for an India progressing without old enervations and new injustices to prosperity. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. The 18th century nursery rhyme, its original probably a riddle, is loved for the one image it invokes - a great fall. The picture of a dumpy egg, of a being...

-Down to Earth NDA-ruled Centre tells Uttarakhand to computerise Public Distribution System first; Congress-ruled state cries foul The Central government has told Uttarakhand government that allocation of food grains to it under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) will be considered only on successful completion of computerisation of the state's public distribution system (PDS) and satisfactory arrangements for delivery of food grains at the doorsteps of beneficiaries. The letter dated August 4, a...