-Economic and Political Weekly A "high-level" committee makes half-baked recommendations which will rollback the PDS. A ccording to media reports, former Union Minister for Food Shanta Kumar recently disowned the National Food Security Act (NFSA) on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He explained, without blinking, that the BJP had just pretended to support the Act when it was being discussed in Parliament, for fear of the possible electoral consequences of...
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I&B asks depts to use Preamble with ‘secular’ word -Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of the "Preamble" controversy, the government has issued instructions that all advertisements and government communication will use the 1976 version of the Preamble in future. In a letter, information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley has directed officials to ensure that the amended version of the Preamble be used by DAVP and other media units. This comes on the back of a row...
More »Modi government's doublespeak on food security is a recipe for chaos and corruption -Jean Drèze
-Scroll.in The strongest safeguard against fraud is not end-to-end computerisation but clarity of entitlements: if people know what is due to them, they will fight for it. In a stunning admission of party hypocrisy, former Food Minister Shanta Kumar recently stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party's support for the National Food Security Act last year was just a pretence. Remember, when the act was being discussed in Parliament, BJP leaders (from Narendra...
More »Hundreds of free drugs in states, only 50 in central scheme -Rema Nagarajan
-The Times of India The union health ministry's target of distributing 50 drugs free under the free essential drug scheme is so much lower than the hundreds of drugs being provided by states with a functioning free drugs scheme that it has left health officials in these states puzzled. After starting off by talking of distributing 348 drugs in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) during the tenure of Dr Harsh...
More »Why Rajasthan faces paucity of women teachers for math and science -Akshaya Mukul
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: At a time when the government is stressing on science and mathematics for girl students, a study from Rajasthan on gender and equity goals in secondary education shows that its efforts are not misplaced and in fact the issue needs urgent attention. One of the key highlights of the study undertaken with support of MacArthur Foundation shows there is a paucity of women maths and science...
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