-The Indian Express Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, provides unskilled manual work for 100 days to eligible rural households. Facing criticism over rising unemployment and rural distress, the Union government PLAns to launch a new project under which a stipend of up to Rs 20,000 will be given to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) labourers who undergo training in skills such as masonry or carpentry. The...

-News18.com Another approach to improving citizen engagement could be through community PLAtforms like Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and gram sabhas. The Poshan Abhiyaan intends to do this, but lacks how these PLAtforms reinforce accountability. We are a nation that carries 23.8% of the global burden of malnutrition, with a total of 195.9 million under-nourished people. But it is reassuring that the government is committed to tackle malnutrition on a war footing with...

-The Telegraph It will be available free to below-poverty-line patients and at a cost to the rest The Union health ministry has decided to provide peritoneal dialysis, a home-based alternative to haemodialysis that typically requires thrice weekly hospital visits, to patients with end-stage kidney disease across India under the National Dialysis Programme. It will be available free to below-poverty-line patients and at a cost to the rest, just as haemodialysis is under the...

-Newsclick.in Children go hungry in India while granaries overflow and corporates get mega tax-breaks. As a child, I never liked eating liver. I would gaze at my PLAte for ages, as I sat ruminating at the table, well after everyone else had finished their meals. “You are wasting your food,” my mother would scold me, “while children in Ethiopia are dying of hunger.” I am not alone. Almost all of us would...

-Down to Earth blog Overburdened drainage, frenzied and unregulated construction, no regard to the natural topography and hydro-geomorphology all make urban floods a man-made disaster The recent floods in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh have taken by surprise both governments and people. In Patna, severe water logging has brought the city to a halt, with hospitals and residential areas filled with waist-deep water. Transport services have been disrupted, with many trains cancelled. There is...