-CivilSocietyOnline.com For the past decade state governments have launched a series of Internet-based initiatives to deliver services more efficiently. Technology has been seen as the best way of bypassing red tape and corruption in the system to reach the poor directly with benefits. Beneficiaries are identified through biometrics and a series of tech solutions like smart cards, micro ATMs and so on. The result of these efforts is that India is...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Official statistics suggest the juggernaut of India's economy has started to roll at a clattering pace. But some analysts stayed cautious, keeping in mind the low investment levels. The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) today said the gross domestic product (GDP) - the broadest MEAsure of the economy - had grown at a robust 7.9 per cent in the fourth quarter (January-March 2016), which enabled the government to fulfil...

-The Indian Express The children were given milk under the “Amrit Yojana”, a scheme to provide nutrition to young children. Raipur: Two girls, both aged three years, died after consuming milk given to them under a state government scheme in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh late Monday. Seven more children — two from the same village in Bijapur and five in Janjgir Champa district — were admitted to hospital after they complained of...

-The Hindu Figuring out key parameters on which to MEAsure a State’s performance provides a playbook of best practices for others to follow. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (MGNREGA) aims at “enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.” In the financial year...

-The Times of India New Delhi: The health ministry will soon revamp its flagship immunisation programme 'Mission Indradhanush' to include four new vaccines. The mission, currently providing coverage against seven life-threatening diseases, will soon also include vaccines for rotavirus, MEAsles rubella, inactivated polio vaccine biavalent and Japanese Encephalitis for adults, health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said. Mission Indradhanush — depicting the seven colours of the rainbow — will also be rechristened...