A determined bureaucrat re-imagined government to show how India's dismal malnutrition statistics can be improved without great cost. All it requires-a plan, innovation and great commitment.
Pramit Bhattacharya reports.
The government is considering providing every poor person an option to choose between direct cash transfer or taking ration from fair price shops in the revamped Public Distribution System under the proposed National Food Security law.
The Congress rules state and centre, but money set aside for Rajasthan's malnourished tribal children does not reach dysfunctional crèches and other urgent needs.
Srinand Jha reports.
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Rs. 72 crore fund meant to stop chronic malnutrition and hunger deaths among the state’s 90,000 Sahariya tribals unspent or used for welfare of officials.
Srinand Jha reports.
The government will redraft the food security bill on the recommendations of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to widen its reach, particularly among special populations. Some original provisions that had been pared down are back on the menu. Zia Haq reports.
Widening the scope
Why the world's largest child-welfare scheme cannot stop children dying from malnutrition in India's city of gold.
Pramit Bhattacharya reports.
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Wealthy Mumbai is now one of India’s most malnourished districts, and the data suggest it could be worse. Why cheap food, welfare schemes won’t help.
Pramit Bhattacharya reports.
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India has struggled for more than three decades to put a figure to the number of poor in the country. Hindustan Times looks at some of the fundamental questions around the debate.
Even as the UPA government deliberates on a new food security law, a Supreme Court-appointed panel has asked the Centre to supply foodgrain to the states at Antyodaya Anna Yojana rates for all the Below Poverty Line families, in the 172 poorest districts identified.
Bhadra Sinha reports.
New tensions are emerging between the government and its think tank, with the food ministry making major changes to a National Advisory Council (NAC) draft of a new law slated to become the blockbuster social-security scheme of the UPA's troubled second tenure. Samar Halarnkar reports. The battle within
Unpaid bills of
Rs. 17,000 crore — and growing — have revealed hidden food subsidies and acute financial mismanagement as the government prepares to adopt the costliest, most ambitious legislation of its tenure.
Samar Halarnkar reports.
Skyrocketing: The great food-subsidy gap
Riding on the determination of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the draft law that will make access to food a constitutional right will be ready within 15 days, a minister said on Monday, even as police detained some members of the National Advisory Council.
Samar Halarnkar reports.
The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the government to immediately allocate an additional 5 million tonnes of foodgrains to 150 poorest districts of the country under the supervision of a committee appointed by the court. HT reports.
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It is destined to be a national hub of light, a ‘new Singapore’. But for five lakh tribals and lower castes, Singrauli is India’s heart of darkness. Samar Halarnkar writes.
A government committee on reforming the public distribution system has decided that rather than foodgrains, the poor in India should get money in an electronic account every month and should have freedom to buy food of their choice from fair-price shops.
Chetan Chauhan reports.
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