The new railway tracks announced on social demand but which are economically unviable and may get delayed due to fund crunch may be funded through NREGA. Railways, which is facing a fund crunch and is struggling to check cost escalation, has also asked state governments to pitch in at least 50% of the project cost from their kitty by raising it through a cess or any other means. According to...

India may be forced to cut down on the number or compromise on the quality of model schools promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 because of a failure to execute the plan till now. For more than two years, central and state bureaucrats have struggled to define model schools, evolve funding and management mechanisms and coax private partners to chip in — while costs have soared. The cost of starting...

South Asia will be badly hit by declining crop yields stemming from climate change, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (Ifpri) has found ahead of a food security summit next month. Another study, released by the Food and Agricultural Organization on Thursday, also said that farm yields will be adversely affected by global warming. The Ifpri report—made public on Wednesday—analysed 32 crops and livestock commodities in 281...

After the euphoria comes the real test. The cost of implementing the historic Right to Education Act over the next five years by Centre and states works out to a whopping Rs 1.78 lakh crore. The new law will come into force from the next academic year and since right to education is now a fundamental right, it is mandatory on the part of the government to provide what is demanded....

The Centre, for the first time, has undertaken a nation-wide survey of slums to profile urban household poverty and the nature of jobs held by those living on society's fringes. The survey will profile slum-dwellers by caste and religion "for properly allocating development schemes, policy-making, project formulation and implementation, and monitoring", according to an official at the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (Hupa). The survey, being conducted under Hupa,...