-The Hindu Demands for a universal pension scheme got bolstered with a large number of underprivileged people including farmers, domestic workers, single women, disabled persons, sex workers and trans-genders from more than 20 States beginning a five-day dharna at Jantar Mantar here on Monday. The campaign for universalisation of Rs.2,000 as monthly pension for every elderly above 60 years in age and does not come under the tax slab is being spearheaded...
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Estimating poverty properly
-The Business Standard How to take hot air out of the poverty debate Once again, poverty estimations are creating a needless debate over what is a modest measurement problem. For many years since 1973, the government had followed a simple formula: if a household could not afford to buy a minimal number of calories and clothing for its members, it was deemed as a household below the Planning Commission poverty line....
More »Health insurance scheme for the poor a total failure, says DMA
-The Hindu Not possible to honour smart cards under present circumstances: Hospitals The Delhi Medical Association has expressed concern over what it called the “total failure” of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) initiated through the Delhi Government to provide free health care to persons belonging to the below poverty line by providing them an insurance of Rs. 30,000 which they could utilise in any hospital in the eventuality of ailment. “The scheme...
More »Standard and poor? SCs, STs in Kerala, Tamil Nadu better off than others-Rukmini Shrinivasan
New census data on asset ownership among different social groups has shown that a far higher proportion of scheduled castes and higher still of scheduled tribes do not own basic consumer durables like a phone or bicycle as compared to "others". Three states however buck this trend; across caste groupings in Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the rate of ownership of basic consumer durables is high. In fact, the asset ownership...
More »Jairam Ramesh unhappy over Odisha performance on MGNREGA
-PTI Unhappy over Odisha's performance in implementing MGNREGA, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today asked the state government to sincerely utilise about Rs 5,000 crore central fund proposed for various rural schemes this year instead of complaining against the Centre. "It is a matter of regret that Odisha put up a poor show in implementing MGNREGA. Its performance is at the bottom after Bihar and Jharkhand though programmes like MGNREGA is...
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