By stubbornly overruling the National Advisory Council, the government risks defeating its purpose as a body that speaks for the poor and the disadvantaged. HAS the Manmohan Singh government begun to regard the National Advisory Council (NAC) as an adversary who should be undermined? Going by their exchanges on key issues such as food security, wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes...
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Midday meal scheme to get paltry hike of Rs 6cr this year by Akshaya Mukul
The Midday Meal (MDM) scheme catering to 12 crore children — all set to increase manifold with the implementation of the Right to Education Act — is likely to get a paltry increase of Rs 6 crore in the 2011-12 general budget. Last year, Rs 10,380 crore was allocated for the scheme. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) may see a big jump in allocation — Rs 21,000 crore from Rs 15,000 crore...
More »Rise in number of anaemics catches PMO's attention by Kounteya Sinha
India's high burden of anaemia has now got the Prime Minister's Office seriously concerned. With the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) finding the prevalence of anaemia to be 80% in children, 70% in pregnant women and 24% in adult men, the PMO called a meeting on Thursday with top officials from the Planning Commission, ministries of health and women and child development, the National Institute of Nutrition and independent experts...
More »UN-backed report shows most of world’s coral reefs under threat
An estimated 75 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are threatened by local human activity, including over-fishing, coastal development and pollution, and global pressures such as climate change, warming seas and rising ocean acidification, according to a United Nations-backed report unveiled today. “Reefs at Risk Revisited,” launched today in Washington and London, says that if the threats to the reefs are not dealt with, more than 90 per cent of...
More »UID and Public Health: Specious Claims by Mohan Rao
Among the many reasons cited for India to proceed ahead with the Unique Identification (UID) project -that it will facilitate delivery of basic services, that it will plug leakages in public expenditure and that it will speed up achievement of targets in social sector schemes - the most specious is perhaps the claim that it will help India reach her public health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite impressive economic growth in...
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