-PTI The Prime Minister on Thursday launched three missions on Smart Cities, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, and Housing for All. States and Union Territories will have a greater say in implementation of the three flagship schemes for urban development launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, as per the guidelines issued. Operational guidelines for implementation of Smart Cities, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Housing for...

-The News Minute Maharashtra's Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde on Wednesday was embroiled in a controversy involving alleged irregularities in awarding contracts worth Rs 206 crore and the opposition demanded a probe. Among the allegations are irregularities in awarding contracts for workbooks for students, water filters, growth monitoring machines for malnourished kids, medicines and chikkis (sweet cookies with nuts and dryfruits in a jaggery base) earlier this year. Munde, however, rubbished...

-The Indian Express As per the earlier proposal, the Centre was to provide for 75 per cent of the construction cost of rental units. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveils the ‘Housing for All’ by 2022 on Thursday, rental housing, proposed with an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore, will now be missing from the NDA government’s flagship shelter mission. According to officials, the mission originally had provisions for creation of urban rental...

-The Hindu Two years after vociferously arguing for an expansion of the provisions of the National Food Security Act, the BJP in government is bleeding it with a thousand cuts, both fiscal and otherwise When Parliament passed the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013, it had already become one of the most debated pieces of legislation in decades. Those for and against it had fought it out across yards of space...

-IndiaSpend.com A wealth of laws and programmes instituted to protect girls are failing them in India’s two most economically-developed states, Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to recent reports by the central government auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). Both states are failing to implement the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PC & PNT), which prohibits sex selection, before or after conception, and regulates diagnostic techniques to prevent misuse for...