The word ‘Mitanin’ was derived from a Chhattisgarhi custom, where a ‘mitanin’ is a girl bonded ceremoniously in her childhood to another girl as a lifelong friend IT IS quite common for tractors in rural India to haul all kinds of unusual cargo. Even then, a late night emergency shuttle, from a small home in Narayanpaal village in the backward Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, to ferry a pregnant woman in...

UPA's 'Planning Commission' for its development agenda - the National Advisory Council - is in place. The Congress high command has chosen a constellation of individuals with formidable reputations to steer the social agenda in UPA's second term. The watchdog, to be headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will include Madhab Gadgil, Harsh Mander, M S Swaminathan, Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze, N C Saxena, Farha Naqvi, Anu Aga, Narendra Jadhav,...

In a bid to curb the misuse of free information under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the State Information Commissioner has recommended that not more than 100 page-photocopies should be given free of cost to those below the poverty line. Chief information commissioner Suresh Joshi said the clause under which information is given free of cost to below poverty line persons, was being misused. He cited a case where...

The Board of Secondary Education, Assam, will move Gauhati High Court to scrap the State Information Commission’s order that allows students to see their answer scripts under the Right to Information Act. The State Information Commissioner, B.K. Gohain, issued an order on July 4 last year which said in any public examination, whether conducted by the universities, SEBA, Assam Higher Secondary Education Council or Assam Public Service Commission, the candidates...

As many as 12 districts in North-Eastern Bihar have been identified as major “hotspots” in food security in the state, according to the Food Security Atlas on Rural Bihar . The report, prepared by the Institute for Human Development (IHD) in conjunction with the United Nation's World Food Programme (UNWFP), provides a comprehensive food security information system for the state while pin-pointing the most vulnerable districts that are in dire...