-DNA Taking up the gauntlet against alarming malnutrition in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research has announced a new comprehensive national nutrition survey, unlike any done before. This survey aims to unite the efforts and data of all scattered surveys that have happened in the country, the Rapid Action Survey of Children (RSoC), the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for example,and bring on board as equal stakeholders the union ministries of...

-The Hindu Group of joint secretaries will evolve strategies for greater visible impact. Ahead of its second anniversary next month, the NDA Government has constituted a group of joint secretaries from select ministries to evolve strategies to put more substance and speed into the action plans for flagship programmes such as Digital India, Swachh Bharat, Skill India and Make in India. The final presentations will be made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The...

-The Hindu Business Line BusinessLine goes to villages, including those visited in 2014, to understand the progress of the ambitious National Optical Fibre Network. Unused infrastructure and low awareness tell a story of missed links In one corner of the Ramnagar village panchayat office, in Panisagar block of Tripura, is a defunct four-year-old computer. The machine, connected with a 10 mbps broadband line was supposed to bring digital services to this remote...

-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill has been passed with no public consultation about the privacy safeguards necessary for such a database and no provision for public or independent oversight. The rights to liberty and freedom of expression cannot survive if the right to privacy is compromised. The Central government has forced the Aadhaar Bill through Parliament in a week. Aadhaar has had an invasive and controversial presence well before the government’s attempt...

-The Telegraph Bangalore: Two Karnataka districts have shown the way forward by e-filing chargesheets through a dedicated network that automatically routes the documents to the respective courts in tamper-proof form. The pilot project that started in 2014 has thrown up new possibilities in the way the judiciary and police function, with thousands of chargesheets having been e-filed from Mysore and Mandya. The state now plans to take the change to other districts. Around...