At a time when economic wisdom is seen as lying in allowing unrestrained play of economic power and cutting social sector spending, here is a report emphasising the economic sense in addressing hunger, especially child malnutrition. It also brings out the positive impact of employment guarantee scheme, which has been a thrust area of the UPA government but has seen a cut in allocation in Budget proposals for 2012-13. The report...

-PTI Noted environmentalist GD Agrawal, who is on "fast-unto-death" to press for cleaning up of river Ganga, was on Monday referred from BHU to AIIMS in New Delhi after his health deteriorated further. Also known as Swami Gyanswaroop Anand, Agrawal was recently transferred to the Sir Sundal Lal Hospital of Benaras Hindu University (BHU) from the district hospital after suffering a heart attack. He was taken to New Delhi on an air...

-The Telegraph Lakshman Seth, the former CPM member of Parliament blamed for much of the bloodshed in Nandigram, was arrested by a Bengal police team this afternoon while hiding in a Mumbai guesthouse along with two party colleagues. Seth, former MLA Amiya Sahoo and East Midnapore leader Ashok Guria are the key accused in the alleged killing of six villagers during the CPM’s “recapture” of Nandigram in November 2007. Seth, entangled in...

MGNREGS figures register a decline in desert State; Haryana forges ahead in the race Is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the much talked about flagship programme of the United Progressive Alliance government, losing steam in Rajasthan? Doubts over the credibility of the scheme have sprung up in the State that ironically pioneered the right to employment movement in the country. Today Rajasthan lags behind its neighbour Haryana in...

The common man, whose concerns were at the heart of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s two successful election campaigns, doesn’t seem to be the focus of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s budget. Experts and political analysts say the aam admi doesn’t appear to be the dominant concern anymore, prompting speculation about Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi’s role. She has thus far been setting the UPA’s social agenda through the National Advisory Council...