-Outlook Policy think-tank Niti Aayog has suggested outsourcing of public services to private hands in order to reduce dependence on the government administrative machinery. It has also recommended induction of specialists into the governance system through lateral entry, a move which, it says, will bring "competition to the established career bureaucracy". In its draft report on a three-year action agenda made public recently, the Niti Aayog has set a target of full- digitisation...

-The New Indian Express JEYPORE (Odisha): Awareness on safe childhood under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)  of the State Government is gaining ground in tribal areas, with mothers rushing to Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) for providing a healthy diet to their children. About 120 children suffering from malnutrition are brought to the NRCs every month, said sources. According to sources, the Health & Family Welfare Department and Child & Woman Welfare Department have...

-The Indian Express State agriculture minister Gaurishankar Bisen made purported statement in closed-door govt meet Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Agriculture Minister Gaurishankar Bisen has reportedly said in a closed-door government meeting that 90 per cent of the wheat procured for distribution in his state through the PDS system is diverted illegally. The statement attributed to Bisen, who refused to elaborate on it later, comes at a time when there is talk about...

-The Indian Express UP, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu account for 36% of total agri-lending in FY17 till December New Delhi: AMID EARLY signs of farmers in Maharashtra starting to default on their farm loans in anticipation of a waiver on the lines of the one announced in Uttar Pradesh, what is adding to the worries of banks and other lending institutions is that the four states where such waivers are under discussion...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Congress today alleged that the Narendra Modi government was testing the waters on bringing agricultural income within the tax ambit and declared its intention to build a movement of farmers if the idea was implemented. "This government is harassing industrialists, traders, students, political rivals... only one section of the society was left, that is farmers," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said. "The statements coming from important people in...