-Economic and Political Weekly India's scheduled tribes are among the most deprived socio-economic groups and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme has great potential in tribal areas. While the Andhra Pradesh government has made an effort to ensure implementation of the scheme in the scheduled areas, the gap between administrative orders and the grass-roots level is wide. This article lists measures that could radically improve implementation of the scheme...

-The Hindu The programme needs to retain the momentum of a movement than that of a litter-cleaning project "Slum districts... consisted of poorly built houses, a deficiency of ventilation and toilets, unpaved narrow streets, mud, and stomach-turning stenches due to the presence of decaying refuse and sewerage. In such conditions, ill health was observably endemic." This is not a description of Indian cities today (though it may well be), but of Britain around...

-DNA Hyderabad: The Hudhud cyclone that had hit Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in October has caused a loss of Rs 21,908 crore, including damage to the tune of Rs 6,136 crore to private industries in the port city, the state government told the Legislative Assembly on Hyderabad. Making a statement on Hudhud today, Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa said the human loss in the devastating cyclone which made a landfall on...

-The Hindu Business Line   Cocoa has enriched the lifestyle of one lakh farmers in the four southern States When Cadbury India (now Mondelez India Foods Ltd) representatives approached Sabapathy, a coconut farmer at Sethumadai village, 16 km from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu, with some cocoa seedling to be raised as an intercrop in his coconut grove, Sabapathy says he was not interested at all. "They did not give up and I ultimately gave...

-Livemint.com Women in the capital continue to be denied freedom of mobility in public spaces, safety audit by collective of women's groups finds New Delhi: Women in the capital of India continue to feel unsafe while using public transport, even two years after the horrific gangrape and murder of a young physiotherapy student that resulted in nation-wide protests. Women in Delhi continue to be denied freedom of mobility in public spaces, a...