-The Telegraph New Delhi: A new survey has shown that one in every two rural households is eligible for targeted government aid - a significant jump from two earlier estimates of those entitled to blanket benefits. The provisional socio-economic and caste census (SECC) data released by finance minister Arun Jaitley show that almost half the 17.91-crore households in rural India may be considered under various targeted welfare schemes, depending on their specific...
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Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment, interviewed by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta & Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
THE controversy over Maggi instant noodles has once again highlighted the issues plaguing food safety in India. Not only does the issue raise critical questions about safe food production by multinational companies such as Nestle but it also foregrounds the institutional fault lines when it comes to ensuring food safety. Frontline spoke to Sunita Narain, who heads the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the organisation instrumental in initiating...
More »Survey shocker: Half of rural India touched by poverty
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India has a problem at hand and its magnitude is much higher than what was imagined or reported. That is the short and succinct message of the socio-economic caste census (SECC) released on Friday. According to the census, 49% of rural households show signs of poverty. And 51% of households have 'manual casual labour' as the source of income. Whichever way the figures are sliced and...
More »Tribal alienation in an unequal India -Mihir Shah
-The Hindu Thanks to the caste system, India has always been an unequal society. What is even more worrying is that inequality appears to have deepened in the past two decades The Boston Consulting Group’s 15th annual report, “Winning the Growth Game: Global Wealth 2015”, has received extensive coverage in the Indian media. The report comes on top of the Global Wealth Databook 2014 from Credit Suisse, which provides a much more...
More »India sees dip in malnutrition, still trails sub-Saharan Africa
-Hindustan Times India saw a dip of over 14% in the number of malnourished children in the age group of 0 to 6 years -- the sharpest decline in 25 years -- a UNICEF survey has revealed. The country, however, lags behind sub-Saharan Africa where 21% children are malnourished. According to the survey, commissioned by the women and child development ministry of the UPA-2 government, the percentage of underweight children in the...
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