-The Telegraph Many families depend on two entitlements for survival: social security pensions and rations from the public distribution system Particularly vulnerable tribal groups, earlier known as primitive tribal groups, are the sort of people you may never meet unless you take the trouble to look for them. In Jharkhand, they live in small hamlets scattered over the nooks and crannies of the state’s undulating forests. Without a purpose and some local...

-Down to Earth The scheme's Management Information System destroys local accountability, promotes centralisation and administrative control and gives out wrong data There is an increasing tendency in the Union government to show performances of central schemes, especially social welfare programmes, through data captured by the Management Information System (MIS). It is indeed a matter of astonishment how the MIS data always shows high performances of schemes and programmes, while ground surveys and...

-VillageSquare.in Women trained as poshan sakhis, or nutrition friends, advice and help rural women, particularly expectant and lactating mothers, to eat nutritious food and overcome anemia and underweight deliveries Koraput (Odisha): Swapnarani (21), an expectant mother, finishes her household work fast to attend the monthly maitri baithak at her village Bhutanagar in Badakeranga panchayat of Odisha’s Koraput district. Maitri baithak, or friendship meeting, provides space for women to discuss issues that concern...

-The Indian Express The number of Muslim MLAs in the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assemblies are now two and one, up from one and none respectively in the 2013 Houses. Bhopal, Hyderabad, Jaipur, New Delhi, Raipur: The number of Muslim MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh jumped from three after the 2013 elections to 11 Tuesday as the Congress swept the BJP out of power in the three heartland states....

-The Telegraph At least 2,000 wedding functions will now have to be cancelled, the head of an association of marriage halls in Allahabad estimated Lucknow: Yogi Adityanath’s administration has allowed a PILgrimage to interfere with people’s private lives, ordering hotels and marriage halls in Allahabad city to cancel all bookings for weddings during the Ardh Kumbh Mela days earmarked for bathing in the Ganga. At least 2,000 wedding functions will now have to...