-The Telegraph   Cash-for-ration going directly to beneficiary bank accounts 'a disaster'   Ranchi: Bhashan nahin, ration do (give no speeches, give us ration). DBT hatao, ration bachao (remove direct benefit transfer, save ration), Raghubar-Saryu hai-hai (down with chief minister Raghubar Roy and food minister Saryu Roy). Holding such banners and posters, around 1,000 residents from 13 panchayats of Nagri on Monday undertook a 15km padyatra (rally on foot) from Kathalmore to Raj Bhavan...

-TheWire.in In the gender Budget, the Modi government has not done much more than pay lip service to policies that impact women. Soon after the Union Budget was presented, the PMO tweeted Modi as saying: “Special emphasis has been given on women empowerment in the Budget.” A high-voltage communication campaign followed highlighting key proposals for women, including an increase in commitments for the Ujjwala scheme to provide free gas connections to eight crore...

-The Hindu Business Line The National Health Protection Scheme is promising but sketchy The National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), which promises to provide a cover of ?5 lakh each to 10 crore households (50 crore people, or about 40 per cent of the population), marks a big step forward to make secondary and tertiary healthcare affordable to the poor. The initiative is likely to reduce “catastrophic” out-of-pocket expenses, which are estimated to...

-TheWire.in Studies from Chhattisgarh and other states show that most private hospitals force people to pay additional money even after using health insurance. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) or the National Health Insurance Scheme, was initiated in Chhattisgarh in 2009 for below poverty line (BPL) families. In 2012, Chhattisgarh expanded the scheme to non-BPL families as well, through the Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana (MSBY), making it a universal scheme. Under the...

-Newsclick.in An average urban family suffers from chronic undernutrition, with its food consumption deficient in protein, energy, and important vitamins and minerals. A recently released report on the Nutritional Status of Urban Population by National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB), throws light on the chronic undernutrition faced by India’s urban population, particularly the urban poor. The report compares the average consumption of different food groups by the urban population, to the scientifically calculated Required...