The National Advisory Council's proposals on the Food Security Bill represent a bad deal for the poor. The struggle for an effective and equitable Food Security Bill (FSB) has received a setback with the disappointing proposals put forward by the National Advisory Council. There is a disturbing disjuncture between what is being claimed and the actual implications of the proposals. Indeed it may be said that the NAC proposals create new...
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Punjab, Maharashtra, Bengal lead in curbing birth rate by Subodh Varma
Silently, and without much sarkari fanfare, dramatic changes are taking place in the population indicators of some states that you won't see reflected in country-level data. Crude birth rate, that is, the number of live births per 1,000 population dipped from 26.4 to 22.8 for the whole country between 1998 and 2008. That's a 14% decline. But in eight major states, the decline was much more. In Punjab, birth rate...
More »'Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana' launched in Rajasthan
The 'Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana' (PMAGY) was launched in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar District on Friday. Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik launched the scheme at Village 18 BB, Block Padampur here. Mukul Wasnik read out the Message sent by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on this occasion. In his message, Dr Singh said that the scheme, which aims at the integrated development of one thousand villages where a majority of...
More »Rice husk power to light up villages
Three years after lighting up the electricity-deprived remote villages in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with power harnessed through rice husk, the team behind the venture is now undertaking a similar task in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Beginning with Tamkuha in Bihar, the ‘Husk Power System' designed by NRI entrepreneur Gyanesh Pandey has gone on to dispel darkness in over 125 villages since 2007. “The conventional technologies and grids had...
More »Along the food chain by MK Venu
Politicians, from the ruling party and opposition alike, are grappling with the problem of how to effectively communicate with their constituencies on the issue of high food inflation. One had thought it would be easy for the opposition to mount a campaign on rising prices against the ruling coalition, but it appears that inflation and its impact on the political economy is far more complex today than it was 10...
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