-The Telegraph Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today charged the Centre with abolishing the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) in "clear violation" of the Act mandated by Parliament and said he was thinking of moving court against the decision. "I met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 26 and specifically apprised him that the BRGF abolition was in contravention of the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000. The special assistance under BRGF had...

-The Hindu Over 3 lakh tonnes of food grain, enough to feed 15 lakh families, is pilfered from ration shops annually Chennai: The quantum of PDS rice pilfered from Tamil Nadu is so high that it is what 15.68 lakh families are entitled to draw free of cost every month. A whopping 3.76 lakh tonnes of rice from the public distribution system goes missing annually. In financial terms, this means a loss of...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Eight central schemes have been left to states following the Centre's decision to raise their share of federal taxes, but this has left the Union panchayati raj ministry almost jobless. The schemes de-linked from central support are: Backward Regions Grant Funds (BRGF) of the panchayati raj ministry; Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyaan (RGPSA) of the panchayati raj ministry; E-governance...

-Economic and Political Weekly Since independence, India's national health policies have been aspirational but the end results have been limited. The National Health Policy 2015, which is in the process of being finalised, should, in place of the earlier "broadband" approach, adopt a "narrow focus" on primary healthcare through the National Rural Health Mission. The latter has focused on primary healthcare and has shown visible results. A slew of suggestions as...

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) Press Release   New Delhi: The direction indicated by the Finance Minister's Budget Speech in general and that of the taxation policies in particular indicate a quantum leap being taken towards market fundamentalism. In the absence of any increase in the overall spending capacity of the government (Centre and States combined), the steps for fiscal decentralization (from Centre to States) have been constrained, implying only...