New method finds India is 9 per cent poorer india is poorer than previously estimated. A revised estimation of poverty for 2004-05 using new methodology showed the number of people below the poverty line was 37.2 per cent and not 28.3 per cent, as estimated earlier. The new estimate took into account expenditure on food, basic health and education, unlike the earlier estimation based on per capita calorie consumption. The inclusions...

BERHAMPUR: Justice seems to be eluding a 78-year-old woman, Padma Maharana, of Komand village under Rabha police station in Ganjam district. The senior citizen has become a destitute in her own land. She was ‘driven’ away from her village in 2002 by a group of miscreants who eyed her wealth. Having no way-out she moved to Bhubaneswar to continue her legal battle against the miscreants. The miscreants had also allegedly looted her...

Dibrugarh: Over a hundred birds died of suspected pesticide poisoning in a tea estate at Moran in Dibrugarh today. Forest officials said samples of the dead birds would be sent to the forensic laboratory for tests to ascertain the cause. Today’s deaths at Tiloijan tea estate comes close on the heels of migratory birds dying inside Kaziranga National Park on Thursday. Tea workers and people living in and around the...

A complete overhaul of the Indian Legal Service is in the offing. The law ministry is preparing a cabinet note for this purpose so as to bring the ILS on a par with the civil services so that the best students out of law schools join the government. It has started consultations with the department of personnel and training in this regard. A senior ministry official said recruitment will begin...

THENI: From now on, petitioners in remote villages need not wait in the corridors of district police office or in front of the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Police to hand over petitions or air their grievances. They can meet top district police officers at their doorsteps. Theni district police administration launched ‘Police Administration Towards People,’ a special meet-the-people-at-their-village programme, at Chinnamanur near here on Saturday. A team of...