-The Hindu   Rajasthan's tribal district of Banswara chosen for new initiative It was in 1959 that Jawaharlal Nehru launched Panchayati Raj in Rajasthan's Nagaur district NRLM will organise, mobilise poor families in groups, impart training for starting enterprises United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi will launch the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in Rajasthan's tribal district of Banswara on June 3. After the launch of Panchayati Raj in the State's predominantly-rural Nagaur district by...

-The Hindu   Even as the debate over the inclusion of human rights activist Binayak Sen in the Planning Commission's steering committee on health still continues, the first meeting of the committee — that will guide the panel on drafting the 12 {+t} {+h} Plan — has been re-scheduled due to the non-availability of a large number of members on Wednesday. The meeting has now been fixed for June 22 as most...

A 30-year survey of the poor gives a wake-up call POVERTY is becoming hereditary in India, at least for a sizeable population. That is the conclusion derived from a three-decade tracking of poor households in rural India. A survey by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), an international association of researchers and academicians, claims that those who are chronically poor may pass on poverty to their next generation. What’s more, people residing...

What is rural and what is urban is largely an artefact of definition and relative. See the table below. Most of India's 'rural' population resides in villages that contain between 500 and 5,000 inhabitants. Some argue that in other countries, many of these villages would be classified as urban. These studies point out that if India were to be a little more liberal in its definition of urban areas (minimum...

A comprehensive study of Isro satellite images reveals 75% of Himalayan glaciers are on the retreat, with the average shrinkage being 3.75km during the 15 years under study. The grim findings come after raging controversy over claims in the 2007 IPCC report of Himalayan glaciers disappearing by 2035, which were later retracted. The project, which studied 2,190 glaciers, was commissioned by the ministry of environment and forests and department of space...