Surrounded by lush green wheat and yellow flowering mustard fields at Ekdanta primary school, it is noon and the 57 children in two combined classes are fidgety - impatient for the school served midday meal. The hot meals are served by the Akshaya Patra Foundation, the largest non- profit in India, in partnership with the government’s school meal programme that covers 120 million children in 1.26 million schools across the country. A...
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Budget falls short on basics by PV Indiresan
The Budget should be an instrument of economic discipline and a promoter of healthy social development. As it is, it is like a leaky tap; it cannot halt inflation without disciplining political skulduggery. March 21, 2011: A lot has been written about the Budget, how it affects this or that industry or business, or how it will increase or decrease the GNP growth rate. Undoubtedly, all those factors are important. But...
More »Govt focuses on market linkages for farmers to boost pulses yield by Sanjeeb Mukherjee
Plans to set up 150 farmer-producer organisations in 11 states. The government is planning to provide market linkages for farmers growing pulses as part of a programme announced in the Budget to improve their production, as scarcity of this essential item was one of the major contributors to food inflation a few years back. “The share of pulses growers in the consumer price is very low on account of a lack of...
More »RTI changes on NAC agenda by Vandita Mishra
The Right to Information Act 2005 is likely to figure prominently on the agenda of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council when it meets on March 24. Discussion will centre on the two amendments to its rules that have been proposed by the Department of Personnel and TRAIning (DoPT). One, to restrict each application to 250 words. And two, to confine one application to one subject. The Right to Information Rules,...
More »Keep CBI out of RTI: Solicitor General by Nagendar Sharma
The CBI should be taken out of the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI) to block information requests that could put lives of investigators at risk, solicitor general, Gopal Subramanium has advised the government. Subramanium has recommended that the CBI be exempted in light of the "complex and dangerous situations in which the Central Bureau of Investigation has to work". "Its officers need to be protected from dangers which...
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