-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Union minister Maneka Gandhi on Thursday pitched for providing packaged food under the government's supplementary nutrition scheme ICDS. The ICDS scheme is one of the largest schemes of its kind with an estimated 10.2 crore beneficiaries including children under six years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. However, despite decades of implementation malnutrition levels continue to be very high in India. The World Bank estimates that India...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Communal Violence in India has risen marginally in the 17 months of the Narendra Modi as compared with the last 17 months of the UPA-2 government. This is despite Muzzafarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh which led to high number of incidents in 2013. ET collating these figures from officials figures of the Home Ministry fur nished before Parliament in recent years. There have been 1062 incidents of...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The pre-monsoon groundwater level has declined in 46 per cent of wells assessed by the government across the country, as compared to the five-year average, Rajya Sabha was informed today. Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sanwar Lal Jat said this in Rajya Sabha while responding to questions on ground water levels in plains and drying waterfalls in hilly regions. "Assessment of groundwater-level monitoring...

-Press Release from India Resource Center New Delhi: A proposal to tax sugar sweetened beverages like tobacco in India is being welcomed by public health advocates. The proposal to increase sin taxes on aerated drinks is part of the recommendations made by India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on the upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the parliament of India. Taxation to reduce consumption of tobacco has been successful when used...

-The Hindu New Delhi: Even as countries negotiate to arrive at a new global accord to counter the climate change crisis in Paris, an audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday showed that the government had failed to meet its targets for scaling up the use of renewable energy sources under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The NAPCC had envisaged raising renewable energy sources to 8 per cent...