-The United Nations A top United Nations official today strongly encouraged governments to adopt special temporary measures, such as quotas, to boost the number of women in parliament and decision-making positions, pointing to the progress achieved by women in India as a result of affirmative action. “Here in India, quotas have spurred one of the world’s greatest successes in women’s empowerment and grassroots democracy,” Michelle Bachelet said in her keynote address to...

-The United Nations The United Nations today launched a programme to empower poor rural women through economic integration and food security initiatives. “Accelerating Progress Toward the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women” is a five-year initiative that will focus on improving food and nutrition security, increasing rural women’s incomes, enhancing leadership and participation in rural institutions, and creating a more responsive policy environment at national and international levels. “When women are empowered and can...

-IPS News World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security. From the worst drought in 56 years in the United States Midwest, to the Karnataka’s drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have also seen how in our globalised world the nexus between lack of water and food security in one corner of...

QUEZON CITY (PIA) -- The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) announced today the six winners of the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award. The awardees were from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan. A press statement from RMAF said hen Shu-Chu, from Taiwan, is being recognized for “the pure altruism of her personal giving, which reflects a deep, consistent, quiet compassion and has transformed the lives of the numerous Taiwanese she has...

-Press Information Bureau I am very happy to release the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Sameeksha, brought out by the Ministry of Rural Development. This is an innovative way of looking at our development programmes. I compliment Shri Jairam Ramesh for taking the initiative to reach out to scholars in different parts of our country to apply their minds to analysis of what is being achieved, what is possible, what is not yet...