-Daily News Asia's rapid growth is leaving millions behind, causing a widening gap between rich and poor that threatens to undermine the region's stability, according to a new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). "Another 240 million people could have been lifted out of poverty over the past 20 years if inequality had remained stable instead of increasing as it has since the 1990s," said ADB's Chief Economist Changyong Rhee. The Asian...

Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time.  In one...

What better elixir than pure water? Thanks to Naandi, a safe drinking water programme, 3,90,536 households in rural areas across four Indian states are benefited.  Naandi, headquartered in Hyderabad, is a not-for-profit organization which works with governing bodies in rural areas, including Karnataka, to provide clean drinking water to the poor. So what really is their modus operandi? It is essentially a community-run programme where the local governing body or gram...

“The best way to solve the problem of surplus foodgrains is to roll out food security law” Opposing the Union Finance and Food & Civil Supply Ministries' proposal for providing foodgrains as part payment of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh holds that the best way to solve the problem of surplus foodgrains is to roll out the food security law...

Job card holders say they did not get wages   Residents of villages in Seege Gram Panchayat in Hassan taluk alleged at a social audit meet here on Saturday that there were irregularities in the implementation of schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The Bangalore-based Association for Social Transparency, Rights and Action (ASTRA), a non-governmental organisation, conducted the audit, and employees from the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat...