With the government readying to introduce a Bill in Parliament to modify the powers of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to include public-private partnership (PPP) projects, many project managers are close to gagging. The main reason behind why the public sector has not performed, they argue along with several in government, is the fear of the 3Cs — the CBI, the CVC and the CAG. Since almost...

Contesting government figures, several MPs on Monday stressed that the number of manual scavengers still left in the country was much higher than what was furnished by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment — 1.17 lakh. At a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry, they pointed out that this figure did not square with the much larger number of proposals received by the Ministry of Housing...

Centre to notify revised poverty estimates to States soon The Union government will soon notify the revised poverty estimates on the basis of which States can undertake proper identification of beneficiaries under the public distribution system (PDS). This will include a massive exercise to include eligible beneficiaries and weed out the ineligible ones through use of biometric technology, which will replace the manual system of identification. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh...

Eminent citizen AK Jain, who has been deputed to strengthen the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MG-NREGA) in Kokrajhar district expressed satisfaction over the progress of the scheme in Kokrajhar district and rated it as one of the best in Assam. Jain, who has been extensively visiting the sites of implementation of MG-NREGA since June 24 last expressed his satisfaction over the implementation of the...

That hospital births curb mother and child deaths is probably a no brainer. Convincing expectant mothers to get admitted to a hospital is only part of the problem in India’s rural healthcare system. The other challenge is abysmal infrastructure: There is just one hospital bed for every 10,000 Indians living in villages and one in 10 primary health centres in rural areas stumble along without doctors. The result is a human tragedy....