Last summer, about 150 families of Kachan village in Jharkhand’s Palamu district decided to pool funds to repair their only community tube well. A drought, the worst in many years, had dried up two ponds; there were no wells around; and the tube well had been dysfunctional for a year. It took a lot of hardship and one whole month for them to put together what the mechanic had asked...

A ministers' panel meeting tomorrow is likely to consider raising poor families' entitlement for rice or wheat to 35 kg per month at Rs 3 a kg. The Empowered Group of Ministers of Food, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, earlier on March 18 cleared the Food Security Bill, which provided poor families right to 25 kg of the foodgrain in a month . The EGoM is revisiting the bill, the ambitious...

The Facebook page on the Right to Information challenges the government with some provocative questions. “We all pay taxes. Even a beggar on the street pays sales tax when he buys anything from the market. This money belongs to us. But where does this money go? Why are there no medicines in the hospitals? Why are people dying of starvation? Why are the roads in such pathetic conditions? Why are...

The Food Security Bill is going to be taken up afresh by the empowered group of ministers on Monday, on the back of relentless demands from Activists to widen the ambit of the bill, with regard to quantum of ration and number of beneficiaries. The EGoM, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, will examine the draft in light of demands to increase monthly entitlement of foodgrain from 25kg provided for...

Increased representation for women can unleash a broader process that can be set in motion by the strength of sheer numbers. One measure of whether it is important to have women in important policy formulation roles is to examine how a largely male-dominated system of government has served women. It turns out that India performs very poorly in this regard. Despite a few heartening examples to the contrary, in general Indian...