-Firstpost.com Putting state governments that promised loan waivers for farmers in difficulty, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday ruled out such waivers by the Centre insisting States can utilise their own resources in this regard. He clarified that the Centre will not adopt a selective approach by helping one state and not the others. The move is likely to put even BJP governments, including Devendra Fadnavis administration in Maharashtra and the newly...

-Livemint.com Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh have started their own versions of Tamil Nadu’s Amma canteens that provide food at heavily subsidized rates New Delhi: The late J. Jayalalithaa’s government in Tamil Nadu had launched Amma Unavagam (Mother’s canteen) with much fanfare in 2013. Meant to provide wholesome food at heavily subsidized rates, the canteens which are run by the government but staffed by women from self-help groups have been a runaway...

-PTI West Bengal topped the list of States with the maximum number of human trafficking cases in 2016 followed by Rajasthan as the two accounted for around 61 per cent of such cases in the country. Of the 8,132 such cases registered across the country last year, 3,576 were from West Bengal and 1,422 from Rajasthan, government officials said. Rajasthan was followed by Gujarat where 548 such cases were reported last year. Maharashtra...

Political commentaries and analyses about the recently concluded assembly elections in 5 States is not yet over. However, amidst the big debates and discussions on development and changing social dynamics, insufficient attention is being paid to the nutritional data that has been released early this year. Among the 5 States where assembly polls were conducted recently, it is the state of Uttar Pradesh that has the highest proportion of adult...

-The Hindu Popularly quoted figure of 28% is not accurate; here’s why Chennai: Go digital or else. Since demonetisation, the government has been sending out this stern message to citizens who are still wedded to cash transactions. But to go digital, a key prerequisite is access to the Internet. How many Indians have it? Official statistics suggest that the number is as high as 28% of the population. But as with most statistics, digging...