-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Gujarat today figures among the few states in the country with high malnutrition rates among it's children and low immunity levels in its general population. Agricultural scientists and nutrition experts in the country have suggested how effective millet management in Public Distribution System (PDS) and mid-day meal schemes was the key to ensure nutrition security for small farmers and marginal tribal communities. However, in Gujarat millet...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The state government has opposed the Shanta Kumar Committee's recommendation for direct cash transfer through the public distribution system (PDS) instead of subsidised food grain supply to the beneficiaries. Officially, the state's opposition is based on the argument that cash transfer would affect farmers, as procurement from them would stop. However, sources said the state was worried about the move's fallout on its scheme providing rice to the poor...

-Frontline   The BJP-led NDA government has, in the two Budgets it has presented so far, revealed itself to be very different from the pro-farmer image that its leading election campaigner and now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, projected. THE Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha election states: "Agriculture is the engine of India's economic growth and the largest employer, and BJP commits highest priority to agriculture growth, increases in...

-Tribune India Policy shift towards market-oriented management will hit marginal farmers hard There is unfolding of the policy of the NDA government towards agriculture. Contrary to election speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has kept quiet about the Swaminathan Commission report about fixing the MSP of agricultural commodities at cost plus 50 per cent. At the same time, the government has given indication towards reduced FCI operations. It has been...

-The Hindu The Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana was introduced to provide partial wage compensation during pregnancy, but various issues plague its implementation The latest official figures indicate that India is well short of meeting the Millennium Development Goals that pledged to reduce the country's maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by three quarters and the infant mortality rate (IMR) by two-thirds. The Sample Registration System (SRS), 2013, records MMR at 167 per 1,00,000...