Economic growth and liberalisation have helped lift living standards across the country in the eight years to 2007-08, according to a human development gauge unveiled by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The Human development Index (HDI), which measured living conditions on the basis of consumption expenditure, education and health, rose from 0.387 in 1999-2000 to 0.467 in 2007-08. The index has been compiled by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research,...

-The Business Standard   A day before the National Development Council is scheduled to meet and possibly debate on the poverty line and the Food Security Bill, the second India Human Development Report -2011 has said India progressed well in social development front, with higher enrollment rates in education, and a shift towards social inclusion of marginalised communities and minorities. The report, by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research, an autonomous body under...

Centre delinks access to welfare schemes from poverty line NUMBER of people who can benefit from government’s welfare programmes is going to swell. Currently, the Central government caps the entitlements under most welfare programmes to those below the poverty line, which is as low as Rs 12/day/person for rural areas and Rs 18/day/person for urban areas. State governments have been opposing this mechanism. In future, the ongoing socio-economic and caste census...

The political advantage enjoyed by the Congress for bringing the rural job scheme is under threat with five of its states underpaying workers, a revelation that has prompted the leadership against challenging a court order seeking parity between MGNREGA wages and minimum wages in a state.  The Karnataka high court recently ruled that wages under MGNREGA should at least be equal to the notified farm wages. The ruling would result in...

The controversy over the Rs 32-a-day poverty line ceiling appears to have kicked off a minor storm in Congress corridors, with one minister upset that a colleague had hogged the limelight. Kumari Selja, the minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation, has accused the Planning Commission of ignoring her ministry during the controversy while Jairam Ramesh, her colleague in the rural development ministry, had appeared at a media conference called by...