India has missed a historic opportunity to abolish hunger through a universal public distribution system (PDS), which entitles all citizens to affordable food. The National Advisory Council (NAC), a progressive body established by the United Progressive Alliance, was to draft such a law, but has recommended a Bill which greatly reduces the public's entitlements. This is a setback. India's annual per capita cereal consumption has fallen to 174 kg, lower than...

The government is keen on forging a partnership with IIMs, IITs and other select institutes for augmenting professional resource support to its rural development programmes like NREGA. As part of efforts to evolve such a framework, the Ministry of Rural Development has invited representatives from various professional institutes including IIMs and IITs to participate in a workshop organised by it in Udaipur district of Rajasthan tomorrow, a ministry official said. Union Minister...

Media persons from all over the country have a great opportunity to witness the dance of democracy in Jaipur beginning Gandhi Jayanti. A peaceful ‘dharna’ organized by grassroots organizations like the MKSS and RTI Manch, among others, is already attracting some of India’s top writers, editors, development thinkers and civil society activists, besides thousands of common people from all across Rajasthan. The movement will continue indefinitely from October 2 onwards...

  The sea change that India’s national scheme for rural employment guarantee has accomplished is hard to fathom, its vastness touching the lives or more than 100 million people. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA, subsequently renamed after Mahatma Gandhi, or MGNREGA) was a landmark in Indian legislation. Under the act, as of April 2008, for the first time in India’s history, all rural citizens have a legal right...

Impressed with the work done by Gujarat in use of geographic information system, a central expert group has recommended the state's programme as a "base model" to develop a "national framework" for utilisation of the technology in monitoring and implementation of NREGA. The expert group, headed by Rural Development Ministry Secretary B K Sinha, noted in a recent meeting that Gujarat has done "relatively fair amount of work" on the use...