-Frontline The tussle within some Central government Ministries over proposed cuts in the budget for rural development schemes has affected a promise made to senior citizens. THEIR wizened faces said it all. Though there was disappointment, there was also a glimmer of hope that their trek to the national capital would not go in vain. For almost a month, senior citizens, most of them poor, had been pouring into New Delhi from...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-Down to Earth Over 30 per cent urban slums across India have no toilets or drainage facilities, in spite of funds being made available under JNNURM and other schemes Only 24 per cent of urban slums of across India benefited from Central government welfare schemes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) and other schemes run by state governments and local bodies, according to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Government spending of over Rs 46,000 crore on infrastructure augmentation under UPA's flagship JNNURM scheme seems to have improved key indicators of urban life in India and reached the poorest of poor. The recent National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data shows that over 90% of slumdwellers feel water drainage, sewerage and garbage collection and disposal have improved. The NSSO also said 24% of slums had benefited...

-The Business Standard 8.8 million households live in 33,150 urban slums   It might be difficult to believe but there were less numbers of slums in urban India in 2012 than three years earlier. The number came down by 32.3 per cent to 33,150 in urban parts in 2012, compared with 49,000 in 2009, official data issued on Tuesday show. However, at least 12 per cent of the urban population...