-The Times of India One year ago, on 31 December 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the government would soon provide for maternity benefits of Rs 6,000 per child. He announced this as if it were a new initiative, possibly aimed at sweetening the demonetisation pill. What he did not mention is that maternity entitlements of Rs 6,000 per child had been a legal right of all Indian women since...

-PTI So far, the benefits of the scheme have reached 10,000 women approximately, says govt The Centre is trying to make the maternity benefit programme, which has been marred by delay, 'fully functional' by February-end, a senior official said on Monday. The top economists of the country wrote to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last month flagging the delay in the rollout of the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), which promises pregnant and...

-The New Indian Express NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to invest an additional Rs 12,000 crore in next three years for the nutrition of pregnant and lactating women and children in the age group of 0-6 years as the cabinet Wednesday approved an increase of cost norms for supplementary nutrition provided in anganwadis and for adolescent girls. As per the new norms, for children below 6 years, the money has been...

**page** [inside]KEY TRENDS of the Union Budget 2023-24[/inside] Budget 2023-24 is the last full budget before the general election scheduled for 2024. An analysis of the budget allocations suggests that the union government has squeezed expenditure, particularly on food subsidy and the NREGA budget, while boosting Capital expenditure and giving the middle class tax benefits. Social sector activists working on Right to Food, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) came out with...