The Millennium Development declaration was a visionary document, which sought partnership between rich and poor nations to make globalisation a force for good. Its signatories agreed to explicit goals on a specific timeline. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set ambitious targets for reducing hunger, poverty, infant and maternal mortality, for reversing the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and giving children basic education by 2015. These also included gender equality,...

Except for the Left parties, none of the major political parties have given importance to land reforms and problems of landless people during the elections. The Janata Dal(U) and the RJD-LJP are silent on land reforms. In their manifestoes in the previous elections, they had devoted some space to declare their dedication to the problem of land reforms. According to the official sources, the last action of distribution of surplus land was...

UPA-II's ambitious programme to make the nation slum-free within five years is all set to take off as the Housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry has finalised the scheme, and how now sent it to finance ministry for approval. Last year, the government had announced the launch of Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) aimed at making cities slum-free, addressing the problems of slum-dwellers and urban poor in a definitive and holistic manner....

The Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Ordinance, 2010, suggests there’s more politics than understanding of economics that went into it. The setting up of district registering authority under the ordinance, with elaborate powers to even cancel licences, will increase risks of operations posing serious hazard to business plans and will jeopardise the whole MFI network. Especially stifling is the requirement that MFIs have to submit a monthly...

The Commonwealth Games were no showcase, but a mirror of India 2010. If they presented anything, it was this — Indian crony, casino capitalism at its most vigorous. The Commonwealth Games over, we can now return to those of everyday Indian life. For all the protests, though, there was nothing in the corruption that marked the Games that does not permeate every town and city, all the time. Just that, in...