The Prime Minister’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges has decided to overhaul nutrition programmes in the country after a series of negative international reports about its abysmal nutrition record. The panel met for the first time recently although it had been constituted in 2008 after the country was placed below Sudan and Zimbabwe in the Global Hunger Index. The meeting, convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was attended by agriculture minister Sharad...

Swami Aseemanand is the latest big name in the "Hindutva" terror web blamed for a series of blasts; starting with Samjhauta Express in 2007 to the ones at shrines in Hyderabad, Ajmer and Malegaon. The 58-year-old, whose real name is Jatin Chatterjee, is best known for reconverting tribals in the remote Dangs area of Gujarat from Christianity to Hinduism. But as the anti-terrorist squad and then the National Investigation Agency...

Nearing the four crore mark in providing jobs under MGNREGA , re-launching the Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas scheme and reinforcing social audit in programmes on complaints of irregularities were the foremost tasks of the rural development ministry in 2010. While 3.9 crore households were provided employment, the share of women beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act went up to 51 per cent, with...

Dispur has hiked the salaries of all doctors serving in rural areas with additional incentives for those posted in the most remote and underdeveloped char or riverine areas of the state. Health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said the monthly salaries of doctors serving under the National Rural Health Mission has been increased from the existing Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,500. He said similarly the salary of dentists had...

In a packed special court that hears consumer complaints, Hansraj Sharma nervously shuffled through a pile of papers that told the story of his decade-long battle against a car dealer and a bank. District and state-level consumer courts twice sided with Sharma, awarding him $800 for a shady loan scheme. But the defendants repeatedly appealed. Now, after 58 court appearances, his case still drags on. "They keep asking for adjournment on some...