UNDP offers global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations that can withstand crisis, and that drive and sustain growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. It call this people-centred approach “Human Development”. UNDP is committed to help India achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the national objectives articulated in consecutive Five-Year Plans. It aims to improve the lives of the poorest women and men, the...

-The Hindu     In the ‘development versus environment' debate, the demand is always for a compromise on environmental concerns, never for a moderation of developmental activities There is hope in the air: years of corruption, ‘policy paralysis' and a non-functioning government are gone and there is a forceful, efficient, decisive leader at the helm. However, while joining in the national mood of hope and expectation, may one add a word of caution about...

-The Hindu   It is creditable that Narendra Modi seeks inspiration for his growth model from China and Japan rather than the U.S., which is a high-cost, specialist-driven model The old adage ‘health is wealth' was given legitimacy by no less a personage than Professor Jeffrey Sachs, who in 2000, chaired the World Health Organization's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH). The CMH report brought forth indisputable evidence of the link between health,...

-Al Jazeera   Activists and feminists seek implementation of law to check violence against women as new government is sworn in. New Delhi - Two days after Narendra Modi emerged victorious in India's national elections, Kiran battled the heat and crowd to see the man she had voted for in the ancient city of Varanasi. Modi, a leader of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, who took oath as the prime minister of India on...

-The Hindu     PILARICHETTIPALEM (KRISHNA): A group of women farmers recycle their used clothing to raise a fence surrounding their small farm holdings. A senior NABARD official suggested use of an iron sheet fan to drive away the birds attracted to the flower and other varieties of vegetables. It was necessity that drove women in Pilarichettipalem village near Machilipatnam in Krishna district towards innovation. In a novel way, they transform the sarees they...