-Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) The paper examines the restructuring of expenditure in the first budget of the new government, and its feasibility. It compares the increase in budget allocations for key macroeconomic aggregates and sectoral plan outlays for the BJP and UPAII interim budget, and the change from the interim budget. Although overall tactics are aligned to the strategy articulated, the alignment is only marginal as yet, because...

-Daily Pioneer Aware that convincing people, particularly in rural India, to build and use toilets in their homes, is a cumbersome task, the Centre has asked the State Governments to rope in various departments like education and health to raise awareness about the importance of sanitation in rural areas. The move aims to make the country open defecation free (ODF) by 2019. The Modi Government in its maiden budget 2014-15 had...

-Down to Earth Targeted efforts to make food systems more efficient can also reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture Basic calorie need of 3 billion extra people can be met if food systems are made more efficient through targeted efforts, suggests a new report. What's more, the targeted efforts will also help reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture. The report by Researchers from the University of Minnesota, and published in the peer reviewed...

-The Indian Express Focusing on private asset creation will only exacerbate its design and implementation failures. In his budget speech, Arun Jaitley shied away from taking a tough stand on the MGNREGA. In a seemingly non-controversial comment, he emphasised that "wage employment would be provided under MGNREGA through works that are more productive, asset creating and substantively linked to agriculture and allied activities". The subtext, however, is controversial. As argued below, far...

-The Economic Times The rationale for embedding nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programmes in a development agenda is compelling. And yet, strangely, it has been ignored. Planning and implementation of such programmes require collaborative, consistent and aligned effort across multiple sectors. Currently, we have a myopic vision to pursue narrow agendas. Transformational change requires tackling one of the most obdurate challenges: malnutrition. This blight has a large human impact and a larger economic impact...