-The Times of India An SMS alert that tells the position of stocks in ration shops. A front-to-back computerization tracking food grain movement from procurement to rations shops. And a swipe card to allow BPL users to access subsidized food grain. A two-stage Rs 4,200 crore recast of India's notoriously leaky public distribution system (PDS) is likely to considered by the Cabinet on Monday along with a Rs 1.25 lakh crore expansion...

-The Economic Times India is in the bottom of the world's maiden nutrition barometer along with countries like Angola, Cameroon, Congo and Yemen. The barometer — announced by Save the Children on Thursday — has analyzed the governments' commitments and outcomes in improving nutrition in 36 countries, which are home to 90% of undernourished children. The study has also compared the governments' performance in tackling under nutrition and child mortality. It has found...

-The Times of India India is likely to be on an unchartered territory when it implements the Supreme Court order mandating the presence of a judicial officer and an expert to hear appeals in information commissions across the country. According to an independent survey on information commissions across the world there was no precedent of retired or serving judges as members of panels hearing cases related to freedom of information. The rapid...

-The Hindustan Times The recent regularisation of around 900 colonies in Delhi is an inevitable and welcome move. No city can allow a majority of its residents to live in conditions of illegality, particularly when that illegality is a direct outcome of its own history of urban planning. However, why are moves to regularise unauthorised colonies not being followed by similar moves to regularise bastis (often reductively called 'slums') that house...

Direct cash transfers or food coupons should be used by the government to provide services to the poor, says Farzana Afridi, Assistant Professor, Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. Afridi, who obtained her PhD in economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, says that although the Mid Day Meal Programme is having a substantial effect, the...