-The Indian Express   The food security act is inadequate to meeting the malnutrition challenge. Malnutrition remains one of the biggest challenges facing India. In the last large survey, the National Family Health survey of 2005-06, about 42 per cent children under the age of five were underweight. Economic growth has failed to redress this problem. Recently released estimates from the District Level Health survey for selected states continue to paint a dismal...

-The Hindu   Kanyashree Prakalpa provides scholarship to girls from economically-backward backgrounds Kolkata: Kanyashree Prakalpa, a West Bengal government scheme that provides scholarship to girls from economically-backward backgrounds, has been given international recognition by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) and UNICEF. State representatives have been invited to the Girl Summit 2014 in London, in June, and talk about the scheme to a global audience. The conditional cash transfer scheme to school...

There has been a phenomenal rise in the percentage of elderly who are abused by their own family members, and although most of the victims are aware of police helplines, they seldom adopt such solutions. What can be the explanation behind such social behaviour? Based on a survey conducted in 12 cities across 8 states with a sample size of 1,200 elders covering both metro (Tier I) and non- metro (Tier...

-The Hindu   Kolkata (West Bengal): Of the 341 blocks in the State, 81 blocks have water with more arsenic than the permissible limit and 49 blocks with more fluoride than the standard value. North 24 Parganas district, where about 20 blocks are affected with arsenic contamination, is the worst affected and is followed by Nadia, where 17 blocks and Murshidabad with 14 blocks where arsenic in groundwater is higher than the limit. Certain...

-Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which guarantees employment of every rural household for 100 days, has different progressive provisions which incentivise higher participation of women in the programme. Official data suggest that 47% of all MGNREGA workers are women. This paper uses the National Sample survey for the 68th employment-unemployment round (2011-12) to examine the performance of states in terms...