-PTI   The centre is examining the proposed scheme for direct disbursement of food subsidies in cash, instead of foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), as demanded by some states. The final contours of the scheme will be worked out in consultation with concerned agencies like the ministry of finance (department of expenditure) and planning commission, food and consumer affairs minister K. V. Thomas has said. The governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana...

The government will recast the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, to give it a welfare edge, following criticism that it was disconnected from people's concern over corruption, high food prices and inflation. The attempt will be to make it more responsive to people's needs and increase earnings of the rural poor. The reform attempts to make the scheme truly demand-based, besides addressing issues of fraud, misuse of funds, corruption...

Even as this shocking number of malnutrition deaths is reported from Nashik alone, much of Rs 600 crore child welfare budget seems to have been spent on expensive toys et al In commodity purchases that seem to give direct competition to the Organising Committee's orders for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), the State Women and Child Development department spent Rs 13,801 each for a set of four steel utensils consisting of a...

At a time when the Anna-tide has swept the people across the country against the anti-corruption campaign, sadly, the agrarian crisis continues to take a heavy toll on farmers in Vidarbha. Unable to put up with crop failure, crippling debts and not getting remunerative price for their produce, six more distressed cotton-growers have committed suicide in Vidarbha over the last 48 hours. Reports reaching Nagpur on Thursday said six cotton growers...

The Lokpal Bill was introduced in Parliament for the eighth time in the 15th Lok Sabha as Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj mentioned on Saturday. But surprisingly, each time the Lokpal Bill was introduced, events took such a turn that the legislation remained elusive. Will the Bill be through after the hype it got following Anna Hazare's movement? Here's a lowdown of what happened each time the Bill was introduced through the...