-The Hindu In the last three years, important entitlements for children have been undermined by the Centre The recent notification of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, making Aadhaar compulsory for midday meals in government schools, has attracted the criticism it deserves. This notification serves no clear purpose other than to force children to get enrolled under Aadhaar. The government, unfortunately, managed to create the impression that the notification had been retracted,...

-The Times of India Blog Whatever else won UP for BJP it wasn’t development and good governance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to office ostensibly on a plank of economic and administrative ‘acche din’. Sadly, he has not delivered. So voters either don’t know his record or they voted for BJP for quite different reasons. What is the prime minister’s record on development and governance? In three years of BJP rule at...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A UN report released today has ranked India 131 out of 188 countries worldwide on human development and has cited figures suggesting that about half of India's people face deprivation in education, health and living standards. Inequality, multidimensional poverty and gender gaps appear to be factors holding back India's progress on the human development index (HDI), a measure linked to progress towards a long, healthy life, access to...

-The Hindu Pit emptying must become central to India’s efforts to eliminate open defecation Both Ambedkar and Gandhi protested the practice of untouchability by encouraging upper castes to deal with their own waste. Last weekend, the Secretary of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Parameswaran Iyer, took up their call for action by emptying the decomposed waste from a twin-pit latrine in Warangal district, Telangana. Mr. Iyer deserves praise for calling...

-Scroll.in A farmer describes her efforts to preserve 12 breeds of draught as well milch indigenous cattle. On Monday, the so-far peaceful protests against jallikattu on Chennai’s Marina Beach turned violent as the police sought to clear agitators from what had become ground zero of the movement against the Supreme Court ban on the bull-taming sport. Though an ordinance cleared on Saturday allowed the sport to take place this Pongal, the controversy...