-The Times of India   CHENNAI: NGOs across the country are feeling the heat with an Intelligence Bureau report accusing many of them, including one run by Tamil Nadu-based anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, of receiving foreign aid to instigate agitations and stall developmental projects in the country. For many years now, TN has been recording the second highest foreign aid receipts by NGOs, next only to Delhi. According to the Union home...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government officially acknowledged that it is gearing for its first big test with the Met downgrading its monsoon forecast from 95% to a likely 93% of the long period average rainfall. "The government is alert about the possibility of a subnormal monsoon this year and contingency plans are being prepared," President Pranab Mukherjee said in his address to Parliament on Monday. The official word...

-The Times of India   Prem Das Rai, an MP from Sikkim, knew that development indicators from his state were exceptional. But his office didn't know how to showcase them. He reached out to Swaniti, a Delhi-based not-for-profit organization that has been working "consulting style" with parliamentarians. Their portal called Jigyasa aims to answer questions like Rai's. Rwitwika Bhattacharya, Swaniti's founder-CEO, was surprised at what they uncovered. "I always thought that the...

-The Times of India   CHENNAI: To put an end to on-campus discrimination against students from the northeast, the University Grants Commission has asked universities to include the history, cultural heritage and involvement of the region in the freedom movement, in the curriculum of schools and colleges. The suggestion was first made by the North East Students' Federation to various official bodies in the country, including the human resource development ministry and the...

-The Hindu   Development is as much a process of providing services as of removing obstacles and giving freedom from all sorts of discrimination. In what is perhaps one of India's most communal, polarising, divisive and personalised election campaigns, we are told far too often that this election is really about development. Yet, none of the political parties clearly defines development either in their speeches or in their manifestoes. So, what do they...