-ANI The threat of Japanese encephalitis loomed large over Uttar Pradesh Gorakhpur District, claiming at least 45 lives, even though the administration has upgraded healthcare centres to ensure rehabilitation and cure for the affected. Locals have attributed the spread of the epidemic to lack of vaccination this year. They contended that in the absence of proper preventive vaccination, a new kind of encephalitis virus is doing the rounds. "The patients who are coming...

The poverty line figures given by the Planning Commission for 2009-10 have drawn strong criticism of foul play from politicians, social activists and some economists. Is the current poverty line justified? Why are there so many conflicting opinions? To understand this complex issue in simple terms,Indivjal Dhasmana interviewed Pronab Sen, principal advisor to the Planning Commission and former chief statistician. Edited excerpts: There is so much confusion around the poverty line....

The HRD ministry is set to ask the NCERT to review a cartoon in a class XI textbook on political science which appears to show Baba Sahib Bhimrao Ambedkar in a bad light and is a reason for anger among dalits. The NCERT had used Shankar's cartoon of Children's Book Trust to indicate that framing of the constitution was a slow process. The cartoon showed Ambedkar SITting on a snail called...

The agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant can be seen as a case of activism gone berserk. The high-octane drama against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu has wound down. The seven-month-long agitation led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) at Idinthakarai village in Tirunelveli district, demanding the closure of the ready-to-be commissioned project, ended on March 27 when S.P. Udayakumar, PMANE convener, called off...

-Economic and Political Weekly Yojana Bhavan never seems to know how to count India’s poor That the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government can on occasion after occasion mishandle a SITuation and also show insenSITivity has been in evidence once again in its handling of the poverty figures estimated from the 66th (2009-10) round of the National Sample Survey (NSS). Although the Planning Commission’s estimates, as measured by the Tendulkar methodology, declined sharply...