-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: Swachh Bharat as a slogan sounds smart, but rampant corruption at the grassroots level is coming in the way of implementing development projects such as constructing toilets in the state. Public sector units executing toilet projects under the Swachh Bharat Swachha Vidayalay Abhiyan are being forced to deal with villagers and sarpanches who want money before the first brick is laid. Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) is one of...

-The Hindu The production of waste in India is growing at an exponential rate. However, the welfare and dignity of the informal workers involved in the stigmatised sector of waste management remains at the bottom of any government’s political agenda. Human society has always produced waste and always will. Waste materials — substances without value — are constantly generated in all production, all distribution and all consumption processes. The time waste spends...

-Livemint.com/PTI According to a World Bank report, the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to under 10% of the global population in 2015 Washington: India accounted for the largest number of poor people in any country in 2012, but its poverty rate was lowest among countries having large number of poor population, a latest World Bank report has said. According to the report,...

-The Hindu Digital infrastructure may not be of much help in addressing governance and development concerns unless it is integrated into the wider structural and institutional reforms Digital India is the flavour of the season, and not without any reason. Digital technologies have permeated into more and more aspects of our private and public life spaces. A lot of us increasingly depend on them to order groceries, book a taxi ride or train...

The Skill India Mission was launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 15 July, 2015 with much fanfare. However, a new report from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) informs us that among persons aged 15 years and above, only 2.4 percent had technical degrees, diplomas or certificates in 2011-12. Based on the 68th round of National Sample Survey (NSS), the report says that the proportion...