-Frontline Former psephologist Yogendra Yadav, now a member of the political collective Swaraj Abhiyan, recently toured India’s drought-affected districts. He called it a Samvedna Yatra. During the tour, he took note of the agony in rural areas affected by what he calls “one of the worst droughts in independent India” The drought, according to him, has left farmers and the larger rural community in extreme distress, leading to damaging changes in...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The health ministry plans to roll out a centrally sponsored 'Health Protection Scheme' which will replace several of the existing government-supported health schemes including Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the government's flagship health insurance plan catering to families below poverty line (BPL). The proposed scheme will initially provide a minimum cover of Rs 50,000 to around 8 crore families or almost 40 crore people. It will...

-The Hindu Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee held video conferences with District Magistrates on Tuesday to iron out the glitches in the government’s distribution of digital ration cards. The meeting took place at the State Secretariat. The development comes after a number of issues cropped up regarding the implementation of the government’s related initiative including delay in the issuing of digital ration cards and confusion among beneficiaries about the...

-The Hindu The Centre is at loggerheads with the West Bengal over the State government’s one-and-a-half -decade-old notification banning conversion of agricultural land into tea cultivation area. Stating that the 2001 notification was affecting a large number of small growers — estimated to be around 20,000 — mainly in north Bengal, the Centre recently asked the West Bengal government to lift the ban. However, the State government says the ban — imposed as...

-Frontline.in An initiative focussed on Kerala’s development experience exposes a worrying trend of rising inequality and proposes a strategy for sustainable and equitable growth. THE fourth international Congress on Kerala Studies, organised by the A.K.G. Centre for Study and Research in Thiruvananthapuram on January 9-10, has generated much interest for its focus on a worrying new trend in Kerala’s development experience: rising inequality and marginalisation of large sections of people despite...