-PTI Amidst opposition in several quarters to its plan to tweak the rural job scheme, NDA government on Thursday asserted that it would go ahead with MGNREGA reforms as it charged that the flagship programme of the previous UPA regime "was allowed to be exploited for purely partisan purposes". "The tendencies of acquiring easy money and using government funds for political party promotion could be curbed only when a spirited team of...

-The Hindu More than half the households in the country still lack access to sanitation. In its villages, some toilets built under past schemes exist only on paper. In 2019, India will observe the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who gave the clarion call, "Clean up your own mess." But even 67 years after Independence, our cities and towns present a sorry picture replete with mounds of garbage, rotting sewers and...

-FirstPost.com With the hype of his Madison Square Garden show overshadowing everything else, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit was dubbed as a great bilateral victory for India. As the popular consensus went, Modi wowed both the Indian Americans and American politicians and even managed to get a joint op-ed article with President Barack Obama in the Washington Post stressing the importance of the partnership between the two countries. Was it really...

-The Times of India With the Prime Minister himself taking up the broom along with his cabinet colleagues, BJP cadres and lakhs of government employees, the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign got off to an energetic start on Thursday. But a look at the jaw-dropping dimensions of the problem makes one wonder whether Modi really has a chance to meet his target to clean up India by 2019? Here are some sobering...

-The Hindu The world cannot afford to talk about hunger without addressing climate change, food production without sustainability or growth without good nutrition With the world's population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050, we collectively face a dual challenge: ensuring that everyone will have access to affordable, nutritious food without decimating the earth's natural resources in the process. This is easier said than done. Our current food system is dysfunctional both...