-The Indian Express Eight years after the Sachar committee report on the condition of Muslims and creation of a Ministry of Minority Affairs, a post-Sachar evaluation committee, headed by former JNU professor Amitabh Kundu, has concluded that though a start has been made in addressing development deficits of the community, government interventions have not quite matched in scale the large numbers of the marginalised. Poverty levels among Muslims, the committee found, remained...

-Outlook The government today approved Rs 5,200 crore scheme for strengthening power transmission and distribution network in six North-east states. "The Cabinet today approved North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSlP) for Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland for strengthening of the intra state transmission and distribution system," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here. The scheme has been approved at an estimated cost of Rs 5,111.33 crore including capacity...

-The Hindu Over 95 per cent of patients coming to super-speciality hospitals are at the wrong place and have incurred hardships when they could have been treated at their neighbourhood primary care centre. A number of announcements have been made by the Central and State governments on their intent to offer Universal Health Care (UHC). These welcome developments are timely as India is now rapidly becoming one of the few countries that...

-Down to Earth Agricultural markets have turned into centres of political power, say farmers' organisations The new BJP government in Maharashtra has dismissed 166 agricultural produce market committees (APMCs), including the apex Navi Mumbai APMC, following thousands of complaints of irregularities and misconduct received against them. An order to this effect was issued on Monday, November 10, to the director of agricultural marketing in the state. Agriculture Secretary Sudhir Goyal informed that the...

-The Hindustan Times The government is gearing up for its next big mission, a Rs. 113,000-crore plan that aims to usher in a digital revolution by moving everything online, from education to public services to bureaucracy. Aptly called ‘e-kranti', it comes under the Narendra Modi government's ‘Digital India' initiative and is quite simply the world's most ambitious broadband project - but one that will have to overcome countless hurdles, big and small....