-Mainstream Weekly Intense and motivated propaganda, powerful national and international diplomatic pressure, verging on pure and simple arms-twisting of the kind the Third World has been facing for decades by means of the active role of the econo-mic hit-men in the policy establishments, huge cash-back lobbying, both in India and abroad, blunt attempts to bamboozle the persons holding key positions in India’s policy establishment through a combination of hissing and kissing...

-The Hindu Even while acting swiftly to ensure that minor married girls are not denied an opportunity to pursue education, officials see it as a contentious topic requiring a wider debate. The practice of giving girls in marriage at an early age, especially within the family, prevails among certain communities in rural pockets of Tamil Nadu. Speaking to The Hindu on Friday, Chief Educational Officer S. Nagaraja Murugan said that the issue of...

-The Hindu Technical glitches in the unique identification method make it unreliable in disbursing wages under the employment guarantee scheme   Within a few weeks of “Aadhaar-enabled” payments of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme wages being initiated in Jharkhand, earlier this year, glowing accounts of this experiment started appearing in the national media. Some of them also gave the impression, intentionally or otherwise, that this successful experiment covered most of Jharkhand....

-The Economic Times Imagine a rural family of five. Mom. Dad. Two kids. And Grandma. Assume too that they are below the poverty line. The day is coming when this family will have to give its biometrics out to myriad agencies.  You know that Nandan Nilekani's Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or the Registrar General's National Population Register (NPR) has been collecting biometrics for a while now.  But a set of other...

-The Times of India KOZHIKODE: The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has appointed 42 additional doctors in the rural areas on temporary basis in the wake of rain-related diseases being reported from various parts of the district, according to NRHM district programme manager Dr A Baburaj. The doctors thus appointed on an emergency basis have been posted through the NRHM under the compulsory rural service scheme of the state government. The appointments were...