Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s suggestion to BRIng the national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) under the state rural development department has widened the rift between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Jairam wrote to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, suggesting that the EGS be brought under the state rural development department (RDD) for effective implementation in September this year, but in a reply, dated October 7, Chavan bluntly...

India is preparing to launch the dot-Bharat domain name in Hindi in May with the aim of BRIdging the digital divide in the country India is preparing to launch the dot-Bharat domain name in Hindi in May with the aim of BRIdging the digital divide in the country. The move will enable organizations and individuals to register their website addresses in Hindi—and later more local languages—making them more accessible to a...

-PTI   When it comes to companies BRIbing public officials when doing business overseas, India's score has improved the most in a global index, rights group Transparency International said on Wednesday.  Nevertheless, India still ranks near the bottom of the global BRIbe Payers Index, as there was a high likelihood of Indian companies paying BRIbes abroad.  In a list of 28 countries, India has been ranked 19th, while China and Russia fared the worst,...

A taskforce, headed by Unique Identification Authority chief Nandan Nilekani, has recommended the setting up of a dedicated mechanism for end-to-end computerization of public distribution system (PDS) across the country to check pilferage. Once the taskforce's report is implemented, PDS consumers will have a choice to either get subsidized goods from their preferred locations or receive cash as the panel wants to give maximum choices to the beneficiaries. Consumers can go to...

There are serious concerns over shortages of food and housing as the country's population is expected to reach 1.45bn by 2035 The Madanpur Khadr colony is a tenement slum on the southern outskirts of Delhi, the Indian capital. A decade ago there was nothing here but green fields, buffaloes wallowing, goats grazing and the odd small dwelling. Now an estimated 40,000 people live in ramshackle, five-storey, BRIck and concrete homes, 10 to...