The law ministry has prepared a 10-point governance reforms agenda which envisages capping a bureaucrat's term to 20 years and seeks reforms in allocation of mining and land rights. The presentation made to key UPA functionaries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi , says all new recruitments to central government jobs should be for 20 years and any extension beyond that would depend on the outcome of...

A new data analysed by the Planning Commission says that around 382 million Indians were Below Poverty Line in 2009-10, a decline of 27 million since 2004-05.   The decline of over five percentage points (from 37.2% to 32%) in as many years was much less than the target of annual reduction of 2% in poverty in the 11th plan. What the UPA government can showcase is the highest poverty reduction...

The Supreme Court today slammed the Centre for sticking to the below-poverty-line estimates of the 1991 census in distributing PDS grain when preliminary figures for the 2010-11 census, showing a much higher number of BPL families, are available. The judges also criticised the income cap fixed by the government to determine families below the poverty line (BPL) by suggesting it was outdated. The 1991 census showed 36 per cent of the population...

Scheduled Castes and Tribes constitute half of the total "poor, deprived households", a pilot survey to identify the Below Poverty Line population has found. The survey found that SCs/STs were a mere 25% of the "non-poor households" who showed deprivation on some of the parameters -- ranging from housing to illiteracy to homelessness and destitution. The findings reiterate the long-held hypothesis that dalits are the most-underprivileged sections of population and the easiest...

What is the benefit when godowns are full and people are starving? ‘People who starve are also citizens of this country…they cannot be denied foodgrains' ‘How can the Planning Commission justify such a meagre amount to determine BPL status?' The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Centre's approach to eradication of malnutrition and its failure to take steps to prevent starvation deaths in certain pockets of the country. A Bench comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari...