-The Times of India BHOPAL: Residents of Karadia village in Sehore district dread monsoon- because heavy rain maroons the village and in absence of road connectivity it remains cut off from the mainland. Efforts by villagers to apprise local Administration and elected representatives about the problem have failed to yield positive results. Like inhabitants of 7,000 villages that have no connectivity with mainland, villagers in Karadia wake up with a prayer- no...

-The Times of India Jaipur/AJMER: It appears that the authorities in the state haven't learned any lessons from the midday meal tragedy that claimed the lives of 20 children in a school in Chhapra, Bihar. At least 79 kids of a government higher secondary school in Maliyon Ka Mohalla in Baneda town of Bhilwara district fell ill after consuming contaminated midday meal. Preliminary investigations indicate that a lizard was found in the cooked...

Ashish Bose coined the term BIMARU in a paper to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s to highlight the economic backwardness of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He tells Somesh Jha he is not inspired by the Planning Commission’s bogus poverty figures. He says it is time the commission wound up. Excerpts:   * You coined the term 'BIMARU', but these states performed well in alleviating poverty in...

-The Times of India The ongoing 'Bhagwati versus Sen' debate has generated more heat than light, necessitating correction. As an equal co-author of India's Tryst with Destiny, which defines the Bhagwati position, my stake in the debate is second to none. Two extreme characterisations of the positions of the two sides have emerged. The first has it that the differences between them are minimal with each side expressing the same ideas in...

-Down to Earth   Despite high cost of treatment, private sector still takes care of 80 per cent of all outpatient care and about 60 per cent of all inpatient care A study on healthcare costs in India has reaffirmed what everyone knows-that private hospitals are not affordable for the common man. Getting treatment in these hospitals is at least 20 times costlier than the healthcare provided in district government hospitals, reveals the...