-Tehelka Last year’s Red Fort rhetoric has not been matched by action on the ground, with separate toilets for students remaining elusive as ever One part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on Independence Day this year can safely be predicted: the reeling out of statistics to prove that the Swachh Bharat campaign is sweeping the nation. The cleanliness drive launched on 2 October, 2014, was announced from the ramparts of the...

-The Hindu The programme reduced poverty by up to 32 per cent and prevented 14 million people from falling into poverty. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) reduced poverty by up to a third and gave a large number of women their first opportunity to earn cash income, a new research has found. Officials from the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)...

-The Financial Express NEW DELHI: With increasing prevalence of life-style diseases in India, one out of four Indians is at risk of dying from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cardio-vascular ailments or cancer before the age of 70, according to estimates of various global and domestic organizations. The findings are part of a white paper released by the Confederation of Indian Industry and academia on Wednesday. "Every year, roughly 5.8 million Indians die from...

-The Financial Express The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the world’s largest anti-poverty programme, reduced poverty and empowered women but its success has been limited due to lack of work in some of the poorest states, according to a recent report. Comparing two states, Chhattisgarh (strong programme implementation) and Bihar (weak), a study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research and the University of Maryland found that nearly...

-Firstpost.com New Delhi: A large section of farmers and agricultural labourers from various states across the country didn’t want to lose the opportunity of the ongoing monsoon session of the Parliament, to make their voices heard to the lawmakers of this nation. Amid sloganeering —“Ladenge, Jeetenge… Jai Kisan, Jai Kisan” (We’ll fight, we’ll win… Hail farmers!) — at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday, hundreds of farmers and leaders of various...