Closed mines and resultant unemployment are still stoking Naxalism in Saranda, a maiden jan adalat (public hearing) held 160km from the steel city insisted today, indicating that more needed to be done to make the much-touted central action plan for the red turf a long-lasting success. More than 1,000 villagers from the Maoist dens of Noamundi, Gua, Kiriburu and Barajamda among others, which fall in the mining belt of Saranda command...

-Hueiyen News Service   There can be no development in Manipuri society as long as the people merely lament over deprivation of BPL rice, kerosene, NREGS wages, etc and expect to get some benefits from the government, Prof Chongtham Priyoranjan of Department of Economics, Manipur University has stated. He was speaking as Chief Guest at the launch of a project of Manipuri Chanura Marup (Macha Leima) to empower women in using RTI Act,...

The popular impression is that starvation deaths happen mainly because the information about potential victims fails to reach authorities. But can it amount to murder if a starvation death is caused despite adequate warning? A recent Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) report tells us a story of corruption and negligence leading to starvation and death in Odisha. Worse still is the fact that many more villagers await the same fate...

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...

-PTI   The centre is examining the proposed scheme for direct disbursement of food subsidies in cash, instead of foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), as demanded by some states. The final contours of the scheme will be worked out in consultation with concerned agencies like the ministry of finance (department of expenditure) and planning commission, food and consumer affairs minister K. V. Thomas has said. The governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana...