Ahead of a UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review meeting in New York next week, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, Sunday said that decentralisation of power was the key to fighting poverty and hunger. 'The major lacuna in the strategy for MDG is that it ignores the crucial delivery aspect of poverty and hunger eradication. While most countries in the world, developed and developing,...

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Sunday the authorities were not taking enough steps to bridge the widening gap between the rich and the poor. He raised questions over the implementation of major schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) and accused the Union government of “relentlessly” supporting the stock market, thinking its health reflected the people's health. Delivering a lecture here...

Teacher absenteeism continues, despite several studies conducted and reasons identified. Can something be done? Another Teacher’s Day has come and gone. Like the ones before it, we have had the usual combination of speeches (New Delhi), awards (Mohali), “felicitations” (Mangalore), blood donations (Ulhasnagar), walkouts (Shillong), food poisonings (Mumbai), teacher thrashings (Malda) and black badges (Ludhiana). Barely a week later, we are back to the status quo. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, on whose birthday...

A seven-state survey that tracked rural internet awareness shows that about 84% were ignorant of the medium's existence. Of those who make use of the net, 85% access emails, 67% watch video and listen to music and 48% conduct educational research. Interestingly about 13% utilize the internet to know about latest farming techniques and 8% to find about fertilizers. Primary research also shows that as compared to 2008, there is...

KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...