-IANS Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday requested the Centre to release Rs 676.57 crore to pay the wages under the MGNREGA scheme till December 2017. In a letter to Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, the Chief Minister sought his intervention for the release of the funds. Patnaik said the Centre was supposed to release Rs 2,290.19 crore to the state by December-end but it had released only Rs...

-Livemint.com Jean Drèze’s new book of essays defends action-oriented research, especially in the field of development economics Designing government policy to eradicate corruption is not easy. As the “demonetization” exercise demonstrated, such earnest endeavours can have big and unintended consequences and they often might not proceed according to plan. Although not concerning itself with demonetization, a new book by economist Jean Drèze delves into the challenges of making public policy for India....

-PTI Over 10 crore people in the country are getting water contaminated with excess fluoride, the Lok Sabha was informed today. To deal with the problem, the central government has released Rs 800 crore so that community water purification plants could be set up, Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar said during Question Hour. About 10.06 crore population living in 12,577 habitations in different states and union territories are getting...

-Hindustan Times Audit report says most food testing labs in country are ill-equipped. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), India’s constitutionally mandated federal auditor, has cited serious lapses in enforcing food-safety norms in the country, which, it said, could be putting public health at risk. A majority of the country’s food-testing laboratories were poorly managed, the report said. It found that 65 of the 72 state-wide food laboratories were not accredited to the...

-Deccan Herald Punjab, the food bowl of the country, is faced with a paradox of plenty. Ever since the launch of the Green Revolution in 1966, Punjab has been producing a record grain surplus year after year. Yet, over the years, it has turned into a graveyard for its farmers. There is hardly a day when reports of farmers committing suicide do not appear in Punjab newspapers. Take a look at the...