-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Social sector experts have sought wider coverage of social security benefits and increased allocation for the Right to Education, schemes for nutrition for children and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. “There is a deficit of 9 lakh teachers. We have demanded allocation of at least 10 per cent of the national income to education and implementation of the Right to Education by the...

Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made.   Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...

-TheWire.in India’s midday meal scheme (MDMS) reaches more than 11 crore children across 12 lakh government schools around the country. Based on a Supreme Court order in 2001, states introduced a cooked meal in schools – replacing the earlier system of monthly “dry rations”. Despite many achievements, the scheme tends to make headlines for the wrong reasons. A recent audit report by the CAG found a number of implementation gaps, including...

-The Indian Express Twelve states presently show a negative balance with long overdue unpaid wages, threatening the continuation of the scheme. Despite the recent revival, there is crisis looming for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) as the Rural Development Ministry has exhausted more than 95 per cent of its budget provision for the scheme. The fund squeeze has forced Rural Development Minister Birender Singh to write to Finance...

-The Hindu Among other things, the government must work towards giving life to the National Health Policy Even as millions of Indians wish each other health, happiness and hope in the new year, they also await news on the new National Health Policy which will become the GPS in our journey towards better health. The draft policy, which was framed by the Union Health Ministry, was placed for public comment just over...