-PTI Implementation of government's flagship scheme MNREGA has come under flak from CAG on various counts, including diversion of funds and impermissible works undertaken to the tune of about Rs 2,252 crore. The audit undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the programme launched by the Rural Development Ministry in 2006 found that works amounting to around Rs 4,070 crore were incomplete even after one to five years of launching. The CAG...

-The Indian Express Bangalore: An analysis of usage of funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) programme in 156 of the assembly constituencies in Karnataka, which is headed for elections next month, has revealed a continuous decline over the last three years on several parameters, such as average expenditure per constituency, percentage of households employed and average daily wages. The analysis by the IndiaGoverns Research Institute, an NGO,...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-The Hindustan Times Far from the neatly trimmed lawns of India Gate that so often reverberate with cries for justice, far also from the corridors of power where ministries recently squabbled over the right age for consensual sex, lie 197 districts - yes 197, read the figure again - where children are regularly abused. In these districts -- all ridden by conflict -- words like illegal detention, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, torture...

-Tehelka With 65 percent of the population below the age of 35, India boasts of an unparalleled generational dividend, but are we turning this potential into a disaster? Avalok Langer spots a ticking time bomb Nutrition & Health* 40% of children in India are malnourished 43% of children in the age group of 12-23 months receive full immunisation 48%+ of children are underweight 50%+ of all deaths under age 5 are related to malnutrition 45% of children...