-The Business Standard Chhattisgarh Government defines Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and will provide 50 days additional employment to the beneficiaries in the state. The 100-day ceiling of guaranteed employment for the rural people would not be a bar in Chhattisgarh from now. The state government would provide job for additional 50 days---ensuring that the card holder of MGNREGA would get 150 days secured employment. "The proposal to increase MGNREGA...

-The Business Standard The implications of the food security Bill remain worrying The revised draft of the food security Bill, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Tuesday, marks some distinct changes over the draft introduced in Parliament in 2011. However, it may still not fully satisfy either the states or activists. While it retains the overall population coverage of 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban,...

-Live Mint Experts say private banks achieve lending obligations by buying out loans from non-banking entities Most private banks in India have not been able to meet the needs of farmers although they are expanding their rural and semi-urban branch network. This is why the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is insisting that at least one-fourth of the branches of the new banks that will be given a licence must be located...

-The Guardian Negotiations end with agreement on ending violence against women at the Commission on the Status of Women, but civil society groups express concerns UN officials and activists expressed relief and delight over news that an agreement had been reached at this year's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Greeted with cheers, the agreed outcome document of the 57th CSW, which was announced on Friday evening, was hailed as an "important...

-The Hindu There is statistical data to show that the height of Indian children is correlated to their and their neighbourhood’s access to toilets You can learn a lot from measuring children’s height. How tall a child has grown by the time she is a few years old is one of the most important indicators of her well-being. This is not because height is important in itself, but because height reflects a...