As government, corporates seek to engage with NGOs, they gain new significance Brave NGO World? * The Planning Commission is courting NGOs for policy inputs, views on how to make plans work * NGOs and local activism forced govt to stall Vedanta, Posco plans * NGO opposition to snacks being served in schools changed plans to scrap hot meals * NGO have made the government rethink the Polavaram dam project ...
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Singh targets ‘ethical deficit’
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today appeared to back the environmental evangelism blessed by Rahul Gandhi and pursued by Jairam Ramesh, saying “the business practices of some corporate houses have come under intense public scrutiny for their perceived ethical deficit”.Although the Prime Minister’s statement, made at India Corporate Week, carries echoes of the corruption charges now swirling around the country, the preceding sentences suggest environment issues were on his mind.Immediately after...
More »Big concerns over small loans by Bindu Ananth and Nachiket Mor
Microfinance is an effective tool for financial inclusion. Here are some elements of the recently embattled sector The recent controversy surrounding the microfinance sector has entirely eclipsed the fact that it is the first effort in India to have delivered financial services to remote corners of the country in a self-sustaining manner. The stakes are high for India’s poor, and we have to pave the way for orderly growth in the...
More »P Sainath, rural editor of The Hindu interviewed by Himal South Asia
The amount of rural reportage in the Indian media remains far too low, with even important stories such as those on farmer suicides tending to be ignored. One of the outspoken critics of this trend has been P Sainath, rural-affairs editor of The Hindu and 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. He was also the journalist who originally broke the story on...
More »A Thought For Food
Given the scale of UPA-II's proposed food security programme, getting the recipe right was never going to be easy. But even accounting for their differences, the National Advisory Council (NAC) and the government are having more problems than expected pushing the right to food legislation. Two NAC proposals have been rejected by the ministry for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, with the result that a fresh draft may need...
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