The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which has revitalised the rural landscape across the country, stands diminished in the land of its birth, Rajasthan, hijacked and held to ransom by vested interests and stripped of its backbone of an open social audit. As the Andhra experience has shown, there is one ingredient that can bring back its vitality: institutionalising citizen audits. But, is the Rajasthan government up to...

India's hurried quest for development and its disregard for road safety have resulted in a major public health problem that demands serious thought and action. The high mortality and morbidity associated with road traffic injuries are a major public health challenge worldwide. Every year, road traffic crashes kill an estimated 1.2 million people. The figure for the injured is over 50 million. Significant increases in these estimates are projected over the...

A good monsoon this year will help Indian agriculture grow robustly and benefit the food processing and packaging sectors, Minister of State for Agriculture and Consumer Affairs K. V. Thomas said Tuesday. 'Companies which have invested in supply chain of farming like contract farming, food processing and packaging will benefit greatly from good agricultural output,' he said at a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. He said good agricultural growth...

We have just celebrated yet another birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma had a vision for free India, which was to give the nation a people-friendly governance—'Ramrajya'. Unfortunately, 63 years after Independence, this dream of Mahatma Gandhi, remains just a dream and will probably continue so in future too. 'Ramrajya'  cannot be a reality because our country's leaders have too many vices and too few...

Media persons from all over the country have a great opportunity to witness the dance of democracy in Jaipur beginning Gandhi Jayanti. A peaceful ‘dharna’ organized by grassroots organizations like the MKSS and RTI Manch, among others, is already attracting some of India’s top writers, editors, development thinkers and civil society activists, besides thousands of common people from all across Rajasthan. The movement will continue indefinitely from October 2 onwards...