-The Telegraph Fifty-two thousand underprivileged children of Jamshedpur and Gamharia in adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan went without Midday meal on Thursday, a cruel fallout of the Bharat Bandh that forced Jharkhand to stay indoors on Thursday. The success of the bandh meant that either government or aided schools eligible for Midday meals stayed shut or BJP workers and other protesters on the road stopped drivers from ferrying food to cradles from the centralised kitchen...

-The Times of India PANAJI: Three cases of food poisoning were reported back-to-back last year after students consuming Midday meals. This has forced authorities to keep a close watch on Midday meal suppliers as well as school staff. The Union human resource development ministry began quarterly monitoring of the implementation of the Midday meal scheme in states and Union territories across the country since June last year. Goa has registered huge improvements...

-The Hindu Let us begin by listening to Mira’s story. When I learnt that I have been granted admission in the college of my choice, fear of being part of the “rest of the world” gripped me. Though confident about my academic abilities, I was terrified at the thought of how the “others” would react to me: a cerebral palsy wheelchair user with a speech difficult to comprehend and a drooling mouth....

ASHAs will continue to bear the burden of the government's rural health mission as a new order lists more incentive-based services. On May 31, a Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare order listed additional incentivised duties for accredited social health activists, or ASHAs, but was silent on the issue of regularisation of their employment. ASHAs, who bridge the gap between the rural population and the nearest health care outlets under...

-The Telegraph The Jharkhand government is uneasy, a bit tense even, about tomorrow’s visit to Saranda by Union minister Jairam Ramesh who has time and again made public his displeasure at the slow implementation of his development initiative in the former Naxalite hub of West Singhbhum. In his latest missive, sent to chief minister Arjun Munda on June 18, the architect of the Saranda Development Plan highlighted a number of “worrying” issues,...