Minority welfare schemes should target not districts but smaller units like hamlets and urban wards so that nobody passes under the radar, Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council has told the Centre. The Centre’s 15-point programme for minorities, based on Sachar Committee recommendations, aims at multi-sector development in 90 districts with large minority populations. But the council believes this approach misses many who most need help while many non-minority residents reap indirect...

-PTI   Food Minister K V Thomas today said the draft Food Security Bill is expected to go to Cabinet by December 10 to pave the way for its introduction in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. "We have asked the government departments to send their comments on the draft Food Security Bill by December 1. After this, it is expected to go to the Union Cabinet by December 10," Thomas, whose...

-PTI Food Minister KV Thomas today said the draft Food Security Bill is expected to go to Cabinet by December 10 to pave the way for its introduction in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. "We have asked the government departments to send their comments on the draft Food Security Bill by December 1. After this, it is expected to go to the Union Cabinet by December 10," Thomas, whose ministry is...

India's Maoists have spread north-east, gaining a foothold in the strategically located states bordering China and Burma, officials and analysts say. The Maoists are filling the void created by dwindling ethnic insurgent groups like the Ulfa, an Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) report says. One key Assam official told the BBC that boys thought to have gone south for jobs had instead joined the rebels. The Maoists have become squeezed in their traditional...

-The Times of India   Rural development ministerJairam Ramesh has written to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai seeking focused attention to the government's Rs 40,000-crore expenditure on MGNREGS, the flagship rural employment guarantee scheme, and to evaluate funds utilization by states.  The minister has highlighted some deviations made by some states in his communication to the CAG, while requesting the auditor to make suggestions that could help the government "establish...