-The Telegraph The National Democratic Alliance government is planning to scrap the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The chief minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje, had already asked for the employment programme of the MGNREGA under which the state was obliged to provide employment on demand (failing which an unemployment allowance of a specified amount had to be paid), to be downgraded to a mere "food-for-work" programme, where the state...
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Internet.org wants to connect India's offline millions -Shilpa Kannan
-BBC Most parents would love to get their teenagers away from computers. But not in one poor suburb on the outskirts of Delhi, where youngsters are sent to learn. Sharing a few laptops between them, they're being taught some basic online skills - how to search for information, how to send money to their families in the villages and how to book train tickets. None of the children have access to computers in school....
More »India's charities tackle poverty through business -Shilpa Kannan
-BBC It's a riot of colours - yellow marigolds and bright pink roses spread out in the sun. But the people spreading the joy this festive season cannot see it themselves - they are all visually challenged. They take in tonnes of flower waste produced by temples and hotels in Delhi and turn it into organic skin-friendly colours for Hindu festivals. The Society for Child Development, which runs this programme, says the process does...
More »Govt sets up think-tank to fine-tune IPR policy
-The Hindu Business Line The Government has constituted an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) think-tank to help draft a new National IPR Policy and to advice it on issues related to intellectual property. The think-tank, headed by Justice Prabha Sridevan, will highlight anomalies in the present IPR legislations and advice the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on possible solutions, according to an official release. It will also provide views on the possible...
More »Setting diesel free is a good idea -Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
-TheGoan.net As had been anticipated, on October 18, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to decontrol the prices of diesel, the most widely-used petroleum product in the country. Riding on an unexpected fall in world prices of crude oil, the government was able to simultaneously announce a sharp fall in consumer prices of diesel by Rs 3.37 per litre (in Delhi). But the decision...
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