-The Hindustan Times Kanpur: The district administration here made best of efforts to present a pretty picture. But the World Bank chief Dr Jim Yong Kim was obviously not moved. What touched him instead was the rampant poverty that he saw everywhere. "People here are extremely poor. They don't have access to clean drinking water, roads, sanitation and electricity," he said after visiting a Gwaltoli slum in Kanpur. "They (the people) struggle...

-The Economist A steadily rising Muslim population continues to fall behind IT TELLS you something hopeful perhaps that, for all the horror unleashed when two bombs laid by presumed militant Islamists ripped through a crowd in Hyderabad on February 21st, India’s public response has been muted. The blasts killed 16 and injured 117. Both the method of the attack (bombs in metal tiffin boxes strapped to bicycles) and its location (near a...

-The Indian Express Setting up women-only banks overlooks the reasons for their exclusion The women-only bank mentioned in the finance minister's budget speech is like flowers and chocolates — a sweet thought but just as unsubstantial. Financial exclusion of women is a real problem. It deserves far greater effort than sops like a women-only bank. Such a bank also runs counter to the logic of mainstreaming, rather than ghettoising, gender issues. It is...

Introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011, the UPA government’s Food Security Bill is finally going to be discussed in the current (Budget) Session of Parliament. The proposed legislation is now slated to see many additional amendments from the government, following criticism from the States, NGOs and diverse stake-holders working on access to food and child health. Attempt here is to summarise in a Q & A format the...

-Outlook About 30 per cent of people in India were below the poverty line in 2009-10 that was based on the monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) of Rs 673 for rural areas and Rs 860 for urban areas, Parliament was informed today. "As per the latest available information, the poverty line at all India level for 2009-10 is estimated as MPCE of Rs 673 for rural areas and Rs 860 for...