-Down to Earth National Optic Fibre Network will connect all 250,000 gram panchayats of India by 2016 India's first high-speed rural broadband network, the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN), was commissioned in Kerala's Idukki district on Monday. With this, the district, which has a large tribal and rural population, has become the country's first district to have all its village panchayats connected to NOFN, the world's largest rural broadband connectivity project through...
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No room for choice
-The Hindu The recently released draft National Health Policy 2015 highlights the "challenge" of population stabilisation in six of the 11 States. Following massive protests over the death of 13 women who underwent the sterilisation procedure of tubectomy in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh last November, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to all States reminding them that every person should be counselled about the different family Planning options available....
More »Good scheme in bad health -Kundan Pandey
-Down to Earth The primary health centre (PHC) at Ajara block in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district would handle just eight childbirth cases a year till 2011. Today, it handles over 125 such cases in a year. The health centre became efficient because of a Central government scheme that empowers communities to monitor public health services. In 2010, the residents participated in a jan sunwai (public hearing) session, in which they told senior...
More »City must be equitable, not smart -Medha Patkar
-The Indian Express Just a few years ago, the World Bank in its World Development Report claimed that migration from rural India to urban centres is "natural" and the same should not be interrupted or prevented through schemes like the MGNREGA. This was a shocking statement to all those who know why there is huge and ever-growing migration to cities, not only of the labour class but also of farmers and small...
More »Farmers seek representation in NITI Aayog -R Vimal Kumar
-The Hindu Tirupur (Tamil Nadu): "Farming population has shrunk in the country by about 25 per cent since Independence and continues to dwindle at a steady pace. Farmers' suicides are still a concern. "To arrest the trend and save the farm sector, the farming community should be given adequate representation in the newly constituted NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog that replaced the Planning Commission". This is one of the...
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