-AP The microfinance industry pursued a path of rapid business growth in recent years; two investigations now link it to debtor suicides   First they were stripped of their utensils, furniture, mobile phones, television sets, ration cards and heirloom gold jewellery. Then, some of them drank pesticide. One woman threw herself into a pond. Another jumped into a well with her children. Sometimes, the debt collectors watched nearby. More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of...

 Watch a film, get entertained. Well, if it is IIM-Ranchi, you get business ideas, a certificate from the B-school and market linkage from Nabard. Looking to develop reel lessons to transform real-life strugglers into successful managers, IIM-Ranchi is embarking on a unique project — named Barefoot Managers, the premier B-school will develop 15 short films on entrepreneurial literacy and screen one a day in front of semi-literate and low-income groups in...

No one will deny that the least a democratic government can do for its people in a civilised society is to ensure access to food at affordable prices. Ensuring food security is, therefore, a fundamental responsibility of the state. Public distribution system (PDS) is the instrument through which food grains are made available to targeted beneficiaries. Government's resolve to provide for food security is laudable.  At the same time, it does...

-AFP Later this month, India will be removed from a dwindling list of countries where polio is considered endemic, a huge achievement made possible by people like Madara, a 76-year-old street hawker.  At a temporary immunisation camp in a slum in the northern district of Ghaziabad, 23 kilometres (14 miles) from New Delhi, he is busy at work shepherding boisterous children into queues.  All around, social workers break open tiny bottles containing a...

The problem of water shortage in city slums could find an answer in ‘pay-and-use’ water ATMs scheme, which the Delhi government is studying at present. According to the proposal (Newsline has a copy), the water will be filtered at a centrally located plant through reverse osmosis, and supplied to a network of decentralised, “off-grid” and solar-powered ATMs that will be located in areas with low water supply. “Potable water will be sold...