Gandhi was unusually more proactive and practically led the Opposition protest against the rise in the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders during the Question Hour.
Supplying food to schools under mid-day meal scheme, pre-schools and anganwadis is exempt from GST, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has said. Issuing a set of clarification on certain decisions taken by the GST Council in its 43rd meeting on May 28, the CBIC said it had received representations regarding applicability of GST on the issues as to whether serving of food in schools under mid-day meals scheme would be exempt if such supplies are funded by government grants and/or corporate donations. Under the goods and services tax (GST), any catering service, including mid-day meals, provided to an educational institution is exempt from the levy.
Dalit students at a government school in Champawat district refused to eat mid-day meals cooked by an upper caste woman after a cook belonging to the Scheduled Caste was sacked.
Wheat will be now be sold to the schemes at Rs 2 per kg, while rice would be given at Rs 3 per kg.
Gopalganj's District Magistrate Rahul Kumar sat down on the floor along with students and had the mid-day meal prepared by the woman.
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Wednesday announced five guarantees for women, including annual direct cash transfers of Rs 1 lakh to one woman from each of the country's poorest families and 50 per cent quota in all new recruitments in central government jobs.
As over 10 lakh students continued to be deprived of mid-day meals due to primary school teachers boycotting food-cooking duties for the third consecutive day in Bihar on Saturday, the government held "positive" talks with the agitators to end the logjam.
Three police vehicles were damaged by agitators during bandh call in Saran district on Wednesday over the death of 22 children due to eating poisonous mid-day meal in a government school, police said.
At a time when several states are making efforts to sell rice at Rs 2 per kg to the poor, the Kozhikode municipal corporation plans to provide the mid-day meal at the same price to make it a hunger-free city. The idea to launch the novel scheme was mooted at a recent meeting of government officials of the health and finance department at Kozhikode.
It was a protest which held a mirror to the government of a state taking pride in its commitment to democracy, gender equality and social indices.One person, who in his employed days had known governments and political parties at close quarters, told me that public perception of how the Kerala government handled the ASHA workers' strike had been terrible, reports Shyam G Menon.
Who owns a recipe, and should one fight over its origins?
The matter was brought into public domain by the BJP's West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh who took to Twitter to slam the government for its directive.
The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on certain states for not implementing welfare legislation National Food Security Act, saying that why a state like Gujarat was not implementing the law passed by Parliament.
On Monday, August 29, a court in Saran, Bihar, sentenced the headmistress of the school where 23 children died after eating a mid-day meal to 17 years in prison. Three years after that tragedy, discovers Satyavrat Mishra, the state government has failed to learn its lessons.
"Many people in my village, who thought I could not do anything, are in shock after I won the money," Babita Tade tells Rediff.com Contributor Mohnish Singh.
rediffGURU Dr Karthiyayini offers expert advice on how you can manage your overall health and fitness.
The Congress has so far announced 82 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls beginning April 19.
The controversy over whether the government should mandate cooked food or pre-packaged meals at child care centres (anganwadis) and for the mid-day meal scheme in primary schools under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) misses the wood for the trees.
Sanjeev Nayyar gets inside a kitchen that's more than just feeding hungry children; it is liberating them -- irrespective of caste, creed, sex or religion -- not just on the physical level but also on a spiritual level.
The Kerala high court on Tuesday stayed the operation of two recent orders of the Lakshadweep administration--to close down dairy farms and remove meat products, including chicken from the menu of midday meals for school children.
According to the Approach Paper to the 12th Plan, the Commission has pegged a plan expenditure of Rs 5.83 lakh crore (Rs 5.83 trillion) for 2013-14, which is around 12 per cent more than the budgeted plan expenditure for the current fiscal.
Fifty girl students of a middle school in Bihar's Sitamarhi district were taken ill on Friday after drinking water from a tubewell, officials said.
Direct cash transfers or food coupons should be used to provide services to the poor, says Farzana Afridi.
PepsiCo Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Indra K Nooyi, who hardly takes time off for social events, could not resist helping the latest fundraiser by Akshaya Patra, a non-profit organisation providing hot, nutritious mid day meal for 1.2 underprivileged children in India.
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Saturday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to declare Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate at the earliest to ensure a majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Realising that raising money for charity will only get tougher in the present economic environment, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has decided to harness the ever-increasing mobile users in India.
Government was watching Gandhiji's mood to know if he had cooled down. They found out from his letters and utterances that he was the same old firebrand and even more determined than before.
The map below shows the classification of this score into Mostly Dirty, Somewhat Clean and Mostly Clean.
Modi stressed his government has created a 'security cover' to ensure good heath of children and mothers during the past 55 month of his rule.
"The headmen have to act as the eyes and ears of the administration and help the government in carrying forward its developmental agenda," Azad said.
At least 34 tribal students were hospitalised for suspected food poisoning in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh after consuming a meal at their hostel, officials said.
The government has extended the supply of subsidised cooking gas to educational and social welfare institutions.\n\n\n\n
To help the country emerge as a true welfare State, political parties must put the country's interests first before strategising to win elections and short-term goals, argues Ramesh Menon.
Many schools across the world received breakfast or lunch for their students under World Food Program. But even this aid is under serious threat. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has put the priority on feeding the hungry by closing a $755m funding gap for the UN's World Food Programme this year.
Pratham's latest report on rural education has some good news, but it's mainly bad.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances