-The Pioneer Garhwa (Ranchi): A 45-year-old woman died of hunger at Korta village under Danda Block of Garwa district on Friday, villagers alleged. The woman named, Premni Kunwar, wife of Mutur Mahto did not have anything to eat despite being an Antyodaya card holder. She was managing food from neighbours for the past 15 days, locals said. SDO, Garhwa Pradeep Kumar, who visited the village on the instructions of DC Neha Arora said that...

-The Indian Express In Jharkhand, ABBA was first made compulsory for PDS users in Ranchi district in August 2016. By June 2017, it was mandatory in about 80 per cent of the ration shops across the state. This meant, of course, that Aadhaar itself was compulsory — no Aadhaar, no food. Recent events in Jharkhand shed some useful light on the damage done by compulsory biometric authentication in the Public Distribution...

-The Hindu Aadhaar-based Biometric Authentication does nothing in the battle against graft — there are better alternatives In a sickening way, October 2017 was like October 2002. Fifteen years ago, in Rajasthan’s Baran and Udaipur districts, there was a spate of starvation deaths. The government of the time made up fanciful stories to deny that the deaths had anything to do with hunger or government failure. In October 2017, the death of an 11-year-old...

-The Hindu On the need for action-oriented research in development policy A whole new way of looking at poverty and development policy is taking shape in the world of economics. Traditionally understood as meagreness of material resources, there is a growing realisation that poverty also depletes mental resources. Understanding of how poverty impacts behaviour, what the absence of resources does to a person’s mindset can vitaminise the poverty-fighting policy toolkit. Insights, well-designed qualitative...

-TheWire.in While Nepal is still awaiting a way to return the banned notes, Bhutan has curbed the use of the new high-denomination notes. New Delhi: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would demonetise over 80% of its bank notes on November 8, 2016, two neighbouring nations were also taken by surprise. Nepal and Bhutan both have significant reserves and usage of Indian currency, with the latter giving it the status of...