-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A UN report has projected steady decline in prices of foodgrains over the next decade, attributing the gradual price fall to increase in overall agricultural production and diversification of dietary choices towards meat and dairy products. The report, released last week, however, emphasized that prices of foodgrains would not fall below early 2000-levels "despite the advantageous scenario regarding global food pricing". It noted that additional agricultural...

-Hindustan Times India saw a dip of over 14% in the number of malnourished children in the age group of 0 to 6 years -- the sharpest decline in 25 years -- a UNICEF survey has revealed. The country, however, lags behind sub-Saharan Africa where 21% children are malnourished.   According to the survey, commissioned by the women and child development ministry of the UPA-2 government, the percentage of underweight children in the...

-BBC Good health data is rare in India. The last time the country published a comprehensive, state-wide survey was back in 2007. So why hasn't a vast survey of women and children carried out by the Indian government with the UN agency for children, Unicef, been released? India's so-called Rapid Survey of Children was a huge undertaking. Almost 100,000 children were measured and weighed and more than 200,000 people interviewed across the country's...

-Down to Earth As per government documents, the current year’s progress report on MGNREGA shows that around 33,000 structures have been completed and work on around 1.1 million structures is still on After the Centre’s ambitious target of constructing one toilet per second to spruce up rural development failed, it has come up with another 'impractical' target. Now, the NDA government plans to construct 42 water harvesting structures every hour under the...

-PTI New Delhi: Auditor CAG has pointed out discrepancies in the implementation of social welfare schemes including mid-day meal (MDM) and pulled up the Delhi government for its failure to obtain fund utilisation certificates from various institutions.   The auditor also criticised the performance of the Delhi tourism and transport development corporation, saying that it has failed to formulate a perspective plan for tourism promotion in the city despite 39 years of its...