-Frontline Once more, without feeling: the government's latest poverty estimates. YET again the Central government has mired itself in controversy by releasing its latest poverty estimates based on the consumption expenditure survey of the NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) Survey of 2011-12. The Planning Commission's poverty line, using methodology suggested by the Tendulkar Committee in 2010, is now apparently defined as the spending of Rs. 27.20 per capita per day in rural...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A community-managed meal scheme that has shown encouraging results in improving the nutrition level of pregnant women and lactating mothers in Andhra Pradesh may be replicated across the country. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh told The Telegraph that Andhra’s Nutrition cum Day Care Centre (NDCC) scheme was being studied and could be replicated in rural areas under the Centre’s Aajeevika scheme. “The NDCC scheme is being implemented by self-help...

-Tehelka.com The Sen-Bhagwati ‘debate' on economic policy is focussing on the wrong issues Several things are quite remarkable about the recent debate between Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. The first surprise is that such a debate could become a major news item at all, making headlines and filling screen time on news channels, when it is about economic strategies that are normally discussed only in relatively small academic and policy...

-The Indian Express The proposed bill makes false promises. The need is to directly address problems of drinking water availability, sanitation, maternal health and childcare The Food Security Bill (2013, FSB) promulgated recently by an ordinance is expected to be debated in Parliament soon. The intention behind the FSB is noble, to eradicate hunger from the country, but the means adopted need serious reconsideration. FSB, under the targeted public distribution system (TPDS),...

-The Hindu     Women are essential for the success of schemes like the mid-day meal programme. Improving their wages and working conditions would be better than blaming them when things go wrong. Mahatma Gandhi once declared, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." By this yardstick, India does not fare well. Consider recent headlines alone: 23 Bihari children die after eating poisoned midday meals at their schools. Six-year-old...