It is official now that the poverty in India is much more than earlier estimated. The Suresh Tendulkar Committee report submitted this month (December 09) estimates poverty in India at over 37 per cent (2004-5) and not at 28 per cent as calculated earlier. With recent price rise in food items factored, the current level could be even higher (See the link of the report below). The Government of India had...

India's Supreme Court has admitted a plea to end the life of a woman who has been in a vegetative state since 1973. Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse in Mumbai (Bombay), has been paralysed and considered "brain-dead" since she was attacked by a rapist in November 1973. The plea has been made by a journalist who has written a book on Ms Shanbaug. The court will examine if the plea is "akin...

Referring to China in 1947, Nehru declared, “A new star has risen in the eastern horizon,” and some years later predicted, “If you peer into the fuTure, the obvious fourth country in the world is India.” One of the countries he had in mind has disappeared, and he did not imagine that the emergence of India and China on the global stage would lead to mutual friction. The Chinese are...

After dedicating most of 2009 to jump-starting financial markets through stimulus packages, developed countries are now Turning their attention to reforming the basic architecTure of those markets, especially the incentives for risk-taking. In a major step towards regulating systemic risks, the United Kingdom last week announced a one-off 50 per cent “super-tax” on bankers’ discretionary bonuses exceeding £25,000. The move could raise £550 milli on, which would be used to...

Farmers of Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh, who have been served a notice for acquisition of land for a freight corridor for Mamata Banerjee’s railway ministry, have decided to rope in all those who had backed the Singur agitation for a movement against the project. As a first, the farmers have written to Medha Patkar, the spearhead of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, who is one of the key social activists...