The sex ratio in Haryana has dipped again in 2010 after encouraging signs of reversal in 2009, showing that female foeticide is still prevailing across the state. The health department figures for last year show a negative trend in 17 districts in the 0-6 age group. The disclosure has forced the government to do a rethink on policies being framed to arrest the slide. According to figures available till 2010-end,...

Sajha Manch – a network representing farmers' groups and voluntary organisations – appealed to the elected representatives of Panchayati Raj bodies and members of the Rajasthan Assembly here on Tuesday to exert pressure on the State Government to nullify a controversial agreement signed with bio-technology giant Monsanto of the U.S. for partnership in agricultural research and hybrid seed production. The Sajha Manch regretted that the pact had been signed in July...

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme completes five years this year. A week before the budget, CNBC TV18's Gopika Gopakumar travels to the interiors of Maharashtra to find out how the NREGA scheme is getting implemented. Pandurni village, in Nanded District of Maharashtra, is in high spirits. It has won the award for best performance in implementing the rural employment guarantee scheme for 2009-10. Around 1,500 people from this village are registered...

Altogether 17 workers of Dungarpur district have received unemployment allowance after they were not given work under provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Since implementation of the MGNREGA in the state, this is the second such instance of unemployment allowance payment, widely seen as an assertion of the workers' right under the Act. In 2009, a lone labourer in Bhilwara was paid the allowance after...

The Posco opponents have thrown a direct challenge to the police and civil authorities by breaking the road leading to Jtadhari, where the South Korean steel major has proposed to put up a captive port. The authorities are gearing up for starting work at the steel plant project site near Paradip after the union ministry of environment and forest cleared Posco-India's proposal to set up a 12 million ton steel plant,...