Everything is in short supply here, especially hope. There was a flicker of it, though, when on April 30 Prime Minister Manmohan Singhcame here with Rahul Gandhi. Maybe the people were expecting a miracle, an end to the misery created by season after season of bad crops and the resultant rising debt. Their hope proved to be short-lived. Since then, nine farmers have killed themselves in Banda district alone, the...

Fresh trouble is brewing for India’s largest high profile Lavasa Lake City project near Pune, undertaken by Mumbai-based Hindustan Construction (HCC), as Maharashtra government is going to file a stringent environmental violation case against it in Pune court this week. “After consulting the legal department on Monday, we will file a case against Lavasa Corporation for violating the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and other breaches,” Valsa Nair-Singh, secretary, department of environment,...

Obituaries for the PDS system are a bit premature, based as they are on outdated data and presumptions. Despite flaws like pilfering and leakages, the system shows signs of improvement in certain states. States have demonstrated the political will to invest in the PDS, by putting in state resources to make it work. Cash transfers (CTs) are increasingly advocated as an alternative to the Public Distribution System (PDS). The proponents of...

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has welcomed the new targets set by world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS held in New York. Countries agreed to advance efforts towards reducing sexual transmission of HIV and halving by 2015 HIV infection among people who inject drugs. They also agreed to push towards eliminating new HIV infections among children in the next five years....

Sonia Gandhi has told the Congress it is the party’s duty to ensure that all welfare schemes introduced by the government are “fully implemented” on the ground. In a letter published in the latest issue of party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh, Sonia wrote: “The UPA has worked hard to fulfil the strong mandate to govern it received from the people in 2009. Since then, the synergy between the government and the party...