-The Hindu Business Line Clientelism - tying benefits to political choices - cannot work because voting preferences cannot be ascertained. Do parties and their local agents link access to government services and benefits from government Welfare schemes to how voters vote, or are expected to vote? This political strategy, which social scientists refer to as clientelism, depends on a massive investment in local leaders who collect information on voters' party preferences, vote choices...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: The representatives told BMC to conduct an in-depth survey and publish a map of all slum-occupied land with the size of areas and the population there. More than a dozen social welfare groups and slum representatives demanded a more inclusive process for slums in the city's Development Plan (DP) in a public meeting with BMC Saturday. The representatives told BMC to conduct an in-depth survey and publish a map...

-The New Indian Express   Most people would have been shocked to read the year-end report that India has been ranked 63rd, much below countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a yardstick used by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to comprehensively measure global hunger. The index is calculated as an average of three indices-undernourishment, underweight children and low child mortality rate-and is measured on a...

-Down to Earth Over 30 per cent urban slums across India have no toilets or drainage facilities, in spite of funds being made available under JNNURM and other schemes Only 24 per cent of urban slums of across India benefited from Central government Welfare schemes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) and other schemes run by state governments and local bodies, according to...