-The Hindu   It will have welfare measures and institutional framework A new National Policy on Older Persons, incorporating a range of welfare measures and an institutional framework for effective implementation, is expected to be unveiled soon. The policy will be based mostly on the Draft National Policy on Senior Citizens, 2011 headed by V. Mohini Giri, Union Minister for Social Justice & Social Welfare Mukul Wasnik said on Wednesday. He was presiding over...

The United Nations unveiled its 22nd annual Human Development Report on Wednesday, with grave warnings that unless countries take action against climate change and implement sustainable solutions, progress in human development will be in serious jeopardy. Trends over the past 40 years indicate extraordinary progress in health and education in some of the world's poorest countries, and if those trends continue, by 2050, most countries will have achieved or surpassed standards...

-The United Nations   Environmental deterioration threatens to reverse recent progress in human development for the world’s poorest, warns a United Nations report released today, calling for urgent action to slow climate change, prevent further degradation and reduce inequalities.   The annual UN Human Development Report, this year entitled Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All, argues that human development is intricately linked to environmental sustainability, and that this in turn must be...

As the Right to Information Act (RTI) celebrated the sixth year of its coming, there has been much heated discussion, often emotional, of the benefits that it has brought and also the challenges with which it has confronted government. This debate came to a head with the prime minister’s inaugural address to the Annual Convention of the Central Information Commission on October 14. It is accepted in all circles that the...

Ahead of its battle with dalit czarina Mayawati, the Congress-led Centre has made it mandatory for all central bodies to make at least 4% of their annual purchases from small scale industries owned by dalits and tribals. The decision, a leg up for developing entrepreneurship among SCs/STs, came as part of the new public procurement policy cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday which mandates Union ministries/PSUs to make 20% of...