-Hindustan Times State food minister Saryu Roy said the state’s recommendation for cancelling the pilot project for direct transfer of food subsidy will be forwarded to the Centre this week. Ranchi: The BJP ruled Jharkhand government has decided to ask the Centre to withdraw its pilot project for direct transfer of food subsidy into account of beneficiaries in place of ration as it was causing immense trouble to the poor and was...

-CaravanMagazine.in The economist Jean Drèze’s book, Sense and Solidarity, published in late 2017, deals with the impact of Aadhaar on social-welfare programmes, such as the National Food Security Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, among other things. Drèze was a member of the United Progressive Alliance government’s advisory council, which designed the NFSA and MGNREGS. He co-authored some of the essays in this book with colleagues and...

-The Hindu Telangana’s experience is instructive The institutionalisation of “social audits” to ensure implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been challenging. Since being included in the 2005 Act at the behest of social movements, social audits have been ineffective in most parts of the country due to government indifference. So far, 26 States have created social audit units (SAUs), but the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) detailed guidelines...

-Economic and Political Weekly A diverse diet based on local foods is the best alternative to feed millions of malnourished children. What young children in anganwadi centres should be fed as supplementary nutrition is once again under the scanner arising from a difference of opinion between the Niti Aayog and the Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi. There were news reports last week indicating that the minister has been pushing...

-The Financial Express The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the continuation of the Agri-umbrella programme, ‘Green Revolution — Krishonnati Yojana’ for two more years. The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the continuation of the Agri-umbrella programme, ‘Green Revolution — Krishonnati Yojana’ for two more years with an outlay of Rs 33,000 crore. The programme merged 11 schemes for a holistic and scientific approach towards...