-The Telegraph The decade-long flow of funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into India’s HIV control efforts will stop from June 2013, a foundation official said today, intensifying fears among sections of health activists about the future of the programme. Avahan was the first large-scale health initiative in India to be supported by the foundation, said to be t he world’s largest philanthropic organisation, and will be the first to...

-Down to Earth Biometric-based unique identity or Aadhaar is leading to huge problems for people working for the rural employment guarantee scheme and for others receiving welfare benefits. Not only have enrolments been done shoddily but the experience of the pilot projects shows that it is almost impossible to authenticate the work-hardened fingerprints of the poor, find Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood. Besides, there is the overwhelming issue of deficient online...

-The Business Standard How to take hot air out of the poverty debate Once again, poverty estimations are creating a needless debate over what is a modest measurement problem. For many years since 1973, the government had followed a simple formula: if a household could not afford to buy a minimal number of calories and clothing for its members, it was deemed as a household below the Planning Commission poverty line....

The Union government has decided to intensify its operations against the CPI (Maoist) by launching the third and fourth phase of its multi-winged, coordinated stratagem to squeeze the expanse of what the Naxalites now refer to as the ‘ring of fire' (part of the red corridor). However, several ministries are not extending any cooperation. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh raised the issue in his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan...

On March 29, 2011, a Right to Information application on AIIMS faculty members travelling abroad on official tours was filed. The applicant sought details of their reasons for the visits, money spent and sponsors of the trips. AIIMS public information officer Lalit Kumar replied six days later saying, “The information is not available. Presently there are 450 committee members. The details for permission of this kind of work, thus the...