The United Nations began laying the groundwork today for a global “social protection floor” that would guarantee food security, health services for all and old-age pensions, with a senior official stressing that all that is lacking is the political will for an initiative needing minimum investment. “Social security is a human right. We’ve forgotten that for a very long time, but roughly only 20 per cent of the global population has...

To keep a check on the implementation of various Centrally-sponsored schemes, a meeting of the District Vigilance Monitoring Committee of the Congress was held under the chairmanship of local Congress MP Pradeep Majhi on Wednesday. District Collector Sibabrata Dash, PD, DRDA, Dhruba Charana Panchbhaya, Executive Engineers of RD, RWSS, SOUTHCO, AEs of PWD, MI and LI and other district officers, besides members of the committee,were present. Detailed discussions on the various Centrally-sponsored...

Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is the nation's domestic security chief, overseeing a broad portfolio that includes battling a homegrown Maoist insurgency and routing out terrorists. The 65-year-old, a veteran of the ruling Congress Party who previously held senior economic posts and played a key role in the country's post-1991 liberalization, is considered a future contender for the post of prime minister. Recently, he spoke to The Wall Street Journal. Here...

Mohali is slated to become one of the first districts in the country where preparations for issuing Unique Identification Numbers (UID) are scheduled to commence from February 15. District administration officials said that once the process of compiling data is commenced from the middle of this month, it would take at least four months for the disbursal of the 12-digit UID to residents of the district to start and would be...

The countrywide share of corporate retail in food distribution tripled in the past four years when retail food prices showed the greatest increase. THE dramatic increase in food inflation over the past two years has been associated with several surprises. One major surprise has been how the top economic policymakers in the country have responded to it. The initial response was one of apparent disbelief, followed very quickly by the...