The Union Cabinet, which meets here on Thursday, will discuss a proposal to dovetail the promised caste census with the survey to identify those living below the poverty line (BPL), government sources told The Hindu. The entire exercise should be completed by the end of this year, these sources added. Dovetailing the two exercises will ensure that the castes enumerated can be correlated with the socio-economic data, and facilitate a more...

India’s public distribution system has limited benefits due to huge leakage and wastage, World Bank said on Tuesday. It also recommended cash transfer as an alternative to provide subsidised food for the poor. “No country in the world has a well-functioning PDS system. India is no exception,” World Bank said in its report Social Protection for a changing India that was launched here Tuesday. “The public distribution system continues to absorb substantial...

Napkins will be sold at subsidised price of Rs. 6 per pack Ensuring better menstrual health and hygiene Safe disposal of napkins at community level The Centre's ambitious and much-awaited scheme of making available subsidised sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years in rural India will be operational by August. As part of promotion of menstrual hygiene, the napkins will be sold to girls at a cost of Rs.6...

Progress has been made on key MDG health targets, but non-infectious diseases have spread to developing countries The world is experiencing a change in the geographic distribution of diseases. Traditionally, infectious diseases, which claim the lives of so many children, have affected poor countries and non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, cardiac ailments and cancer, have plagued rich countries. But the latest statistics released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday show...

In the hue and cry over minimum wages under NREGS, battle lines have been drawn between those who favour central government hiking minimum wage rates to the state minimum, and others asserting that the two must be delinked. While the former invoke 'a right to livelihood', the latter point to the NREGS being 'the employer of the last resort and the imperative of better targeting'. While these views have some merit,...