-The United Nations Urging greater efforts to identify and address the gaps that prevent the most disadvantaged of the world's 2.2 billion children from enjoying their rights, the United Nations released an innovative new report today spotlighting the importance of data in targeting funds and action to reach those who need it most. "Data have made it possible to save and improve the lives of millions of children, especially the most deprived,"...

-Frontline Two draft Bills on the Tribal Sub-Plan and the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan raise hopes of granting these decades-old schemes statutory status and ensuring allocation of funds in the Central and State budgets for their implementation. IN a significant legislative move, the Union government's Ministry of Tribal Affairs released a draft Bill for the implementation of the long-neglected Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), a special programme mandated by the Planning Commission to benefit the...

-Down to Earth Faced with crop losses because of erratic rainfall and extreme weather, tribal farmers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh turn to bewar and penda forms of cultivation that keeps them nourished all times of the year, but government agencies are bent on rooting out these farm practices Hariaro Bai Deoria should have been a worried person this year-an untimely spell of rain late last October flattened her paddy crop, and...

-Down to Earth A Rajasthan village has cylindrical houses that help people cope with extreme weather events It is a chilly December evening in Barmer. The average minimum temperature has dropped to 5° Celsius in this sandy district of western Rajasthan, which borders Pakistan. But thanks to his house, Dayam Khan, a Manganiyar, one of Rajasthan's many communities of traditional musicians, does not need an electric heater or a stove to keep...

-The Hindu The report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-appointed Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Business and Low Income Households has been placed on the central bank's website for comments. Considering the voluminous nature of the report and even more pertinently its complex and, detailed treatment of the subject, the deadline for receiving comments, now set at January 24, would, in all probability, need to be extended. The report packs...