-IANS To woo "ambitious" women, "impatient" youth and the poor, the Congress-led UPA government Thursday promised them more schemes and programmes as they "represent the vast majority of the people of India". "...before I close this part of my speech, I wish to draw a picture of three faces that represent the vast majority of the people of India," finance minister P Chidambaram said. "The first if the face of the woman. She...

-The Hindu ‘Wilful negligence’ by public servants should be defined better in 24-year-old law Dedicated fast track courts to try offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act should be set up, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council recommended on Tuesday, even as it suggested that “wilful negligence” by public servants be better defined in the 24-year-old law. The NAC would like the Rules to the Act amended to...

-Frontline Social development indicators in Gujarat are poor, proving that development in the State is lopsided On a hot day last November near Rajkot, Ramjibhai Patel, an octogenarian farmer, pointed to the middle distance and said, “See that lake?” There was indeed a shimmer in the dry landscape indicating water, but after a relatively poor monsoon, it seemed improbable. Chuckling, he said, “Yes, I see doubt on your face and you are...

-Economic and Political Weekly The proposed legislation on the National Food Security Act has been steadily watered down since it was fi rst mooted in 2009. The Parliamentary Standing Committee that examined the 2011 Bill has disappointingly continued with "targeting". If the government passes the bill incorporating the committee's suggestions, a historic opportunity to combat hunger and malnutrition would be lost. Ankita Aggarwal (aggarwal.ankita87@gmail.com) is a Research Scholar at the Centre for...

-Deccan Herald As primitive tribes continue to be in a state of acute poverty, ‘schedule area’ status for settlements of evicted tribals from Nagarahole National Park will favour their development. The status will also solve the problem of representation of tribals in political institutions, which will help them benefit from the welfare programmes aimed at them, said Muzaffar Assadi, Chairman of the High Court-appointed Committee on Tribal Issues of Rajiv Gandhi...