-Economic and Political Weekly The Chhapra tragedy must ask us how we can improve public services, not scrap them altogether. In the aftermath of the ghastly tragedy in Chhapra, Bihar, where 22 children lost their lives after they consumed a government-provided school meal containing organophosphate pesticides, we must demand of the State a far greater commitment to administering large-scale welfare programmes that are meant to improve, not destroy the life of citizens....

-Live Mint We need to further strengthen and resource the mid-day meal scheme, and not consider its curtailment or dilution The bone-chilling tragedy of 22 children dying in Chhapra in rural Bihar after having their mid-day meal at a government school has rightly shaken the public conscience. But we should resist the temptation of simplistic knee-jerk conclusions, or from attributing blame to the local officials alone or to the state administration....

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government is giving a fresh push to its flagship rural employment scheme ahead of the general elections, providing additional funds to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. To begin with, the rural development ministry will pump in 200 crore each year, a senior official told ET, adding that these states have been chosen because half of their population is below poverty line and they have not...

-The Business Standard The BPL census is scheduled to be completed in the next three to four months The Census of the population Below the Poverty Line (BPL), meant to determine the number of the poor, has found close to half the rural population to so qualify, as against a 28 per cent ratio estimated by the Planning Commission, say sources in the rural development ministry. The BPL census found 48 per cent...

Adding to the debate over celebrity economists blaming India’s malnutrition and stunting vis-à-vis Sub Saharan Africa on genetic differences, Dean Spears, a public health expert and a visiting fellow at Delhi School of Economics, offers evidence connecting our poor sanitation and open defecation with high morbidity and malnutrition. (see both links below). In an evidence-based paper titled Policy Lessons from Implementing India’s Total Sanitation Campaign (2012), based on the review...