-The Times of India PATNA: Eighty-seven per cent of the rural population and 61% of urban residents in Bihar had calorie deficiency during 2009-10, as per reports of National Sample Survey Office. In fact, Bihar ranked 74th (alarming zone) in the global hunger index of 88 countries, according to a Survey of India State Hunger Index 2008. In the same survey, Jharkhand ranked 76th, Odisha 67th and UP 61st, all in...

-Press Information Bureau The India Rural Development Report 2012/13 was released here by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development, Government of India. The Report was prepared by IDFC Foundation in collaboration with network partners, the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), the Institute for Rural Management Anand (IRMA), and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), with contributions from several other researchers, experts and civil society organisations. On...

-Al Jazeera   The reforms promoted by Prime Minister Singh do not go far enough to help food production and the hungry. The debate on the Food Security Act is based on myths on both sides. The government is propagating the myth that it is the largest anti-poverty and anti-hunger programme ever introduced anywhere in the world. The programme is being heralded as Sonia Gandhi's dream project, and billed as a miracle solution...

-PTI NEW DELHI: An ordinance to protect convicted MPs and MLAs from facing immediate disqualification was approved on Tuesday by the Union Cabinet, in effect negating an order of the Supreme Court. Government decided to bring the ordinance after failing to get a Bill to this effect passed in Parliament during the recent monsoon session, sources said. The government's decision to take the ordinance route came against the backdrop of a Congress MP...

-Down to Earth Money pumped in development schemes in Bihar is giving rise to a new breed of village heads, flush with money and flexing muscles About a year ago killings and a spurt in the purchase of arms and luxury vehicles in extremely backward villages started to bother the Bihar police. It spied and found that mukhiyas, or village heads, had multiplied their assets beyond imagination. It took the police six...