Quite often it is argued by mainstream economists that a sizeable chunk of the Union Budget every year is wasted because the Government spends that on food and fertiliser subsidies. The burgeoning size of these two subsidies relative to the entire budget as well as the gross domestic product (GDP) is often used to build the argument that economic as well as environmental sustainability of the country is at stake...

-The Hindu Committee on Home Affairs for immunisation of all frontline workers, CAPF personnel A Parliamentary panel on home affairs observed that “till now, less than 1% of the Indian population has been vaccinated and at this rate it will take many years to vaccinate whole population.” The Parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, headed by Congress leader Anand Sharma, tabled the report in Rajya Sabha on Monday. Second dose missed “The Committee also expresses...

-The Hindu A NITI Aayog paper has recommended reduction in National Food Security Act coverage. Once the new census data is available, the Centre may consider revising the number of people who get subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Friday. He insisted there is no proposal under consideration as yet, but said the Food Ministry was having conversations on a NITI Aayog paper on...

-The Hindu Parliamentary panel pushes for it in all government schools in coming academic year The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education has recommended that all government schools start providing free breakfast in the coming academic year, as part of an expansion of the mid-day meal scheme envisaged by the National Education Policy. However, Education Ministry officials say a severe funding crunch is likely to delay the initiative. Free breakfasts would involve an additional...

-The Hindu “As per RBI data, scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) have written off loans of ₹2,36,265 crore, ₹2,34,170 crore and ₹1,15,038 crore during FY2018-19, FY2019-20 and the first three-quarters of FY2020-21 respectively,” the Minister said. Banks have written off bad loans to the tune of ₹1.15 lakh crore in the first three-quarters of the current fiscal, the Lok Sabha was informed on March 8. As per RBI guidelines and policy approved by bank...