-The Times of India In the decade or so that i was at the Planning Commission, i always had advisory responsibility for the food ministry/public distribution system, among other issues of development policy. It did not take very long to find out that the fundamental problem with the system was about so-called "leakages" abetted by corruption: One soon learnt that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was one of the most...
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Address the divergence
-The Hindu The rationale behind the Union government's decision to extend for four more years the Integrated Action Plan for naxal-affected districts in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, is clear enough. So is its timing, coming as it does days after the Maoist rampage in Chhattisgarh. Out of an annual allocation of Rs. 1,000 crore, each of the 82 districts identified...
More »The Neglect of Health, Women and Justice-AK Shiva Kumar
-Economic and Political Weekly A report on the 2013 deliberation of the Kolkata Group at its 10th workshop which focused on healthcare, the status of women and social justice in India. A K Shiva Kumar (akshivakumar@gmail.com) is convener of the Kolkata Group workshops which are organised by Pratichi (India) Trust, the Harvard Global Equity Initiative and UNICEF India. At the 10th annual Kolkata Group workshop in February this year, 40 policymakers, development practitioners,...
More »‘Government in the dark on status of 13 schemes’ -Nitin Sethi
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: If the dictum 'you can't manage what you can't measure' is true, then the government has an unsure grip over at least half the 13 flagship schemes worth nearly Rs 2 lakh crore annually, almost 80% of the total spend on central schemes. The government is unable to efficiently collate information to assess whether some of the 13 key flagship schemes are producing the results for...
More »Urban PHCs to work from noon till night -Aarti Dhar
-The Hindu Aim is to help urban poor go to health facilities after working hours To help urban poor go to health facilities after working hours, urban primary health centres, planned under the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), will function from noon to 8 p.m. Out-patient departments at standard health facilities worked only in the morning; when patients had to go to work, visiting a doctor or hospital would mean losing a...
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