-Express News Service   Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission of India Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that most of the people in India want to remain below the poverty line in order to receive food grains at subsidised rates. He told Reporters here on Monday that as asked by the government and some organisations, the Planning Commission would constitute a technical committee to determine the below poverty line (BPL). On the Supreme Court’s directions to...

Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh will be touring 12 backward districts in Madhya Pradesh over the next four months to review the working of the flagship schemes of the central government. Speaking at a state-level party program here, Mr. Ramesh assured leader of opposition in the state assembly Ajay Singh that he would personally tour districts like Jhabua and Sidhi among others to review the working of the centre's...

-The Business Standard The Microfinance Bill in its present form may hurt the growth of the Self-Help Group (SHG) programme being run across states to bring people above the poverty line, according to Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. “The Bill needs to be rewritten. MFIs are not instruments for poverty alleviation,” Ramesh said in an interaction with Reporters after he reviewed initiatives by NABARD in an SHG-bank link programme. He, however, did...

Amit Kumar, an Indian journalist based in the eastern state of Bihar, received a tip in 2009 from a village called Manan Bigha just two kilometers away from his home. There was a man there dying from starvation, he was told. The situation was urgent. Mr. Kumar rushed off to visit the man, Kangresh Manjhi, and exhaustively documented his story. He learned how Mr. Manjhi, a lower-caste, landless laborer, was forced...

-The Hindu   The government will amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, to include registration of marriages under the purview of this law. The amendment bill to be introduced in Parliament during this session. This will provide legal protection to couples, especially in cases of inter-religious matrimony. The Union Cabinet on Thursday also approved amendment to the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, to provide for registration of marriages of Sikhs that...