Even as 2011-12 saw Union ministers going on an unprecedented number of foreign trips, the MEA has refused clearance on several grounds for at least 39 proposed trips by 25 Union ministers since June 2009. Some of them are no longer ministers. All these trips, barring one, fell in the official category. The ministers had proposed to travel to destinations such as the US, UK, France, Italy, Japan, Australia and South Africa,...
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Delhi sets up Bengal debt talks-Jayanta Roy Chowdhury
A Union finance ministry panel is likely to call Bengal’s top officials next week to discuss the request for a debt recast. This will be preceded by a meeting of a Trinamul Congress parliamentary delegation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. Bengal, Kerala and Punjab have been officially dubbed debt-stressed states. A panel headed by expenditure secretary Sumit Bose has been tasked to look into the problems of...
More »CAG rues huge central funds to local bodies-Devesh Kumar
A Comptroller and Auditor-General of India report has expressed dismay over the rising share of funds disbursed by various ministries to local bodies and NGOs in 2010-11. The CAG report on the accounts of the Union government was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. "An analysis of Plan Expenditure revealed that 77% of the total Plan Expenditure was in the form of grants-in-aid payment,'' the report stated. "In five of the ten...
More »Get the basics right-Madhavi Kapur
We need a properly defined strategy to integrate poorer children into schools For millions of children, it is a struggle to get to school, to stay in school and to make sense of what is happening in the classroom. After visiting many homes in rural and urban India, I have realised that learning to read without decent instruction, without enough nutrition, without electricity and water, without a place to keep your...
More »States slow on poverty census, deadline expires-Prasad Nichenametla
Uttar Pradesh, which supposedly has a high proportion of the country's poor, has not begun the job of enumerating them even three-and-a-half months after the first deadline set by the Centre lapsed. The project started in June 2011, with the target of completing the job by the end of 2011. The Centre then extended the deadline to April. Bihar has covered just 0.1% of the population. While there is no word from...
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