The ministry of personnel has shown a surprising lack of alacrity in prosecuting errant babus In August last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was keynote speaker at the annual meeting of India’s premier anti-corruption agency, the CBI. There, addressing officers of the agency and state vigilance bureaus, he made a telling remark, “Our anti-corruption agencies must make the cost of corruption unacceptably high for those indulging in this evil practice.” The prime...

The Centre is contemplating direct inclusion of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and minorities in the next below poverty line (BPL) list for entitlement of benefits under social welfare schemes. Inaugurating the two-day 10th Editors Conference on Social Sector Issues 2010 here on Monday, Minister for Rural Development C.P. Joshi said his Ministry was formulating the methodology and criteria to identify families to be included in the BPL list. The objective...

Is Bihar on steroids, boosted by an excessive stimulus of dramatically higher public outlays than ever in the past? Like all stimulus, does it also bear the danger of slumping back when it is withdrawn? Is the widely acclaimed growth turnaround a durable and sustainable one? These are among the many issues, which are currently being debated. But first the facts. Bihar is the best turnaround story that the country has seen...

The strongest earthquake to hit Haiti in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from humble shacks to the National Palace and the headquarters of U.N. peacekeepers. Destroyed communications made it impossible to tell the extent of destruction from Tuesday afternoon's 7.0-magnitude tremor or to estimate the number of dead lying among the collapsed buildings in Haiti's capital of about 2 million people. International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally told the...

A Planning Commission evaluation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has questioned the effectiveness of projects implemented under the Act in boosting productivity and creating assets. NREGA, the Union government’s flagship anti-poverty programme that promises 100 days of employment every year to the rural poor, is partly credited with driving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to victory in the April-May general election. In a presentation made at Prime Minister...