-Business Standard No 'smart city' will be created in the next five years, though a successful programme could see several smart colonies come up across the country The National Democratic Alliance government's ambitious Smart Cities programme will at best be able set up only 100 pilot projects in the first five years. Contrary to general perception, no 'smart city' will be created in the next five years, though a successful programme could...

-Livemint.com Team of civil servants makes presentation at PMO about plans, briefs top officials of NITI Aayog on strategy New Delhi: Undeterred by opposition from trade unions, the Narendra Modi government appears to have made up its mind to pursue labour reforms to boost manufacturing that could potentially absorb millions of workers in a country that will have the world’s largest workforce within the next 15 years. The labour ministry is understood...

-The Indian Express On census, Christians and conversions, Surjit Bhalla has tortured his data to make it say what he wants to hear. Last week, Surjit S. Bhalla wrote a piece in The Indian Express titled ‘Census, Christians, Conversions’. After going over well-trodden ground on what the recently released Census 2011 figures meant, he came to the crux of the matter as he saw it: Why hasn’t the Christian population fallen...

Two recent reports show that this social sector scheme has had a causal impact in improving lives, especially for women and children Fourteen million people escaped falling into poverty under the world’s largest anti-poverty programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In 10 years of its existence, the scheme reduced poverty by 32 per cent. Recent data also shows that more women are drawing cash incomes, more children...

-Business Standard Conceptualised to impart on- and off-field training to farmers, these bodies are failing because of poor financial and logistical support Muradnagar/ Hastinapur: For Ravinder Singh, the red and white building, just a few metres away from their 10-bigha farm is nothing more than a regular government office, where officials come and go without having any impact on their lives. Though they are aware the building has something to do with agriculture,...