Work on a new base year will start the moment the government starts releasing key economic data such as the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with 2004-05 as the reference point within a few months. The National Statistical Commission (NSC), under C. Rangarajan, has recommended that the base year be updated every five years. Officials in the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) say...
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Aruna Roy interviewed by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
Aruna Roy, the prominent political and social activist who spearheaded the campaign to institute the Right to Information Act in the 1990s, is an ardent critic of the anti-people and exclusionary policies of the first and the second United Progressive Alliance governments. A recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 2000, she heads the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana (a trade union of workers and peasants) in Rajasamand, Rajasthan,...
More »Saving the right to information miracle by Vidya Subrahmaniam
The RTI juggernaut has begun to roll over Indian babudom. Let us not turn the clock back. Over the past week, there have been reports that the Prime Minister's Office, responding to Sonia Gandhi's muscular intervention, is backing off on the dreaded amendments to the Right to Information Act, 2005. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that the amendments scare has never been too far away. It resurfaced as recently...
More »Dividing children by TK Rajalakshmi
The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme has been conceived as a major intervention by the Central government to deal with the high rates of infant mortality, low birth weight, and malnutrition among women and children. The scheme essentially targets children in the age group of zero to six years and women in the reproductive age group. The problem is that the ICDS is seen as the success story behind...
More »Income ceiling for low-cost housing loans increased by Aarti Dhar
The government has increased the income ceiling a month a household for housing loans from the existing Rs. 3,300 to Rs. 5,000 for the economically weaker sections (EWS) category and from Rs. 3,301 — Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 5,001 — Rs. 10,000 for the Lower Income Groups (LIG). The revised ceilings will be applicable for definition of beneficiaries under government schemes for housing including the Interest Subsidy for Housing the Urban...
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