HETA, India – At the entrance to this village in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand, a large pond glistened under the bright autumn sun. Yellow and blue lilies surrounded it. A tailor was stitching clothes outside his shop while a few boys nearby were playing carrom on the lid of a rusted oil barrel. It was a tranquil, rustic setting – a candidate for a landscape painting, it seemed. But it...

Unless data gathering for the Socio Economic and Caste Census is refined, the exercise could cast out the real claimants. Have the census enumerators recently knocked on your door with swanky tablet computers in hand? If they have, it's because they have begun to go door-to-door in most States to complete the final phase of the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC). This mammoth exercise is being coordinated by more than...

-CNN-IBN Upset over various incidents ranging from the Park Street rape case to attack on human rights organisations, intellectuals of Kolkata, including a Trinamool Congress MP, on Thursday hit the streets in protest against the 11-month-old Trinamool regime in the state. "There are lots of differences between the old Mamata Banerjee and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The people of this state have thrown away those who have tried to throttle the voice...

The Sonia-Gandhi led National Advisory Council is pushing to amend the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 to make it more inclusive and include a comprehensive social security package. The council, which met last month, pitched for a security package that would contain health insurance, maternity assistance, a life-cum-disability insurance scheme and a pension plan that it proposed should be provided through a single window backed by an inter-ministerial committee consisting...

In a move to empower women, a government panel wants that a mother should be listed as the first guardian for all official purposes instead of a father, arguing that she primarily looks after the children. "Since normally it is the mother who primarily looks after the children, she should be listed as the first guardian ," the Planning Commission's Working Group said in its report.  The panel has recommended a...