For the preparation of the Commonwealth Games 2010, around Rs 17,400 crore have been spent on Delhi by the government over the past three years. The over-used word deployed by public leaders and officials to describe the city, which they hope will emerge from these exertions, is ‘world-class’. But forgotten are the men and women whose toil will make this ‘world-class’ city possible. At its peak in 2008-09, an estimated...

‘Improved law and order gave the vital impetus'  ‘State Govt. has ushered in wide-ranging reforms' ‘Development expenditures have increased' One of India's poorest State Bihar has started turning around based on the all-inclusive reforms initiated by the State Government, including improved law and order and higher public expenditures, the World Bank has said. “There are visible signs of a turnaround where the Bihar Government has been implementing wide-ranging reforms. State revenues and development...

Government policy towards school education is schizophrenic. While on the one hand, it is working on rules to set up, to begin with, 2,500 public private partnership schools as a means to see how it can increase private sector involvement in providing education to the underprivileged (economically or socially) in a bigger way; on the other, it is all set to virtually nationalise elementary education in the country through the...

What’s Working... Cashless facility for hospital care, medicine for BPL families Ensures one-point diagnosis, treatment with empanelled hospitals Fixed charges for procedures reduces chances of fleecing Empanelled private hospitals help ease burden on state ones *** ...And What’s Not Lack of awareness leads to under-utilisation of the scheme Flaws in BPL data deprives many of the RSBY card Outcome dependent on regular monitoring of service providers Could shift focus from need to improve...

With food prices showing no signs of abating and the impact of the fuel price hike in the latest budget making its presence felt, inflation moved fast towards the double-digit mark, touching 9.89 per cent in February, the highest in 16 months. The wholesale price-based inflation stood at 8.56 per cent in January. This could well cross the double-digit mark in March, experts said. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had earlier said the...