-Down to Earth Chhattisgarh's much appreciated public distribution scheme is falling apart due to corruption and mismanagement As chhattisgarh prepares for panchayat election at the end of the year, the fate of ration card holders in the state is in limbo. During a verification drive in July-August, the state government found almost 1.3 million "unnecessary" ration cards in the possession of people. These cards have been taken back by the government and...

-The Hindustan Times One does not have to agree with his views to be intrigued by the possibilities opened up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's emergence as communicator/harangue-master in chief. Public conversations about who we are and who we want to be are key to the vitality of our democracy, and leaders can seed those conversations when they speak out their own views. When I hear people in the Delhi metro...

-The Times of India Over two crore households have been denied work under the fund-starved rural job guarantee scheme in the past eight months. This is a direct result of the deep cuts in funding of the scheme and various other changes initiated by the Modi government. With the employment situation still dire and the new government's long-term efforts to catalyze industrial growth still on the drawing board, the failure of...

-The Hindu Without adequate preparations for its consequences, the State has gone ahead with the merger of small schools with the larger ones. Is there a way out? The Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani's act of consulting an astrologer in Rajasthan may be a personal choice, but her mention of possible amendments to the Right to Education (RTE) Act has definitely created a mess in the State. While she has...

-The United Nations One in three known victims of human trafficking is a child, and girls and women are particularly targeted and forced into "modern slavery," according to the 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, released today by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. "Unfortunately, the report shows there is no place in the world where children, women and men are safe from human trafficking," said...