-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The housing and urban development department of the Odisha government has submitted a proposal of Rs 559 crore to the Centre for construction of houses in the Phailin and flood-ravaged Berhampur city. While the department has sought assistance of Rs 313 crore under the Rajeev Awas Yojana for rebuilding houses for the 13 seriously affected localities inhabited by slum dwellers, Rs 246 crore has been sought to provide sewerage,...

-The Hindu As the country develops economically, its double burden of malnutrition and its health implications will increasingly affect women and those who are socio-economically weak India has one of the highest burdens of underweight women in the world, with rising obesity levels. Using the World Health Organisation classification based on body mass index, or BMI (the ratio of the weight of the body in kilograms to the square of its height...

-The Hindu Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Neither cinema nor television is a match for good old folk traditions when it comes to providing succour to distressed souls in rural confines. If it is the vigorous Kolatam in the plains, it is the rhythmic Dandari and the Ghussadi folk dances in tribal areas of Adilabad which are acting as escape valves for the emotionally charged farmers in the backdrop of the debilitating onslaught...

-The Hindu     In Uttarakhand, women take the lead role in reviving and maintaining civil forests under Van Panchayats even in the face of several obstacles Munni Adhikari, a resident of Dhaura Gram Sabha in Lamgara block of Uttarakhand's Almora district, lives in an idyllic setting: green slopes covered with tall pine and oak trees, wild flowers in full bloom, neat little terrace farms... While this natural splendour can instantly captivate any...

-Institute of Economic Growth This paper focusses on two Indian laws that seek to guarantee socioeconomic rights: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), an important example of India's recent history of legislation of social and economic rights, and the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA), currently in Parliament. Various means of democratic politics, including a ten-year old public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court and public mobilisation through the...