For his contribution in drafting the statute The Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Vichar Manch has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to honour Dr. Ambedkar with the title ‘Father of the Indian Constitution' on Republic Day. In a letter to the Prime Minister, general secretary of the Manch R.L. Kain pointed out that the organisation was representing the feelings of millions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Buddhists that Dr. Ambedkar should...

The recent social impact assessment report of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences TISS) on the Jaitapur power plant is a people's report and not a scientific one, according to S.K. Jain, Chairperson and Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) which is implementing the project. Addressing the media on Friday after the commissioning of the spent fuel reprocessing plant by the Prime Minister, Mr. Jain...

Government planning to move court for Rs.200 as wage The State government is planning to move the court seeking to enhance the minimum wage being given to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) beneficiaries from Rs.125 to Rs.200. Official sources told The Hindu here that this option was being explored in the wake of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to link wages with the Consumer Price Index. Consequent to...

The Experts Group chaired by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman, C. Rangarajan, favours mandatory entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to the ‘priority' category (Below the Poverty Line) as recommended by the National Advisory Council (NAC). But the Group does not think that it is feasible to extend to the ‘general' category (Above the Poverty Line) legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The panel has suggested...

If home minister P Chidambaram’s recent letter to West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is any indication, it has taken the Union home ministry seven years to realise that arming civilians to fight Naxalites is a bad idea. How much longer will it take for them to realise that the current paramilitary-based approach in Chhattisgarh is similarly bound to fail? From 2003 onwards, the home ministry has followed a policy of...