Conditional cash transfers are necessary but not sufficient for improving health. Good government-funded health care is essential, as are schemes which address social determinants of health. The march of capitalism, with its reduced emphasis on public spending, while improving many national economies has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor. For millions of Indians, hunger is routine, malnutrition rife, employment insecure, health care expensive and livelihoods are under...

The Right to Education Act, which lacks a transformational vision, is geared to preparing foot soldiers for the global market. THE most encouraging and delightful news regarding school education in India since the pro-market reforms began in 1991 came from Erode district in Tamil Nadu recently. To be sure, it is neither about the World Bank-sponsored District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of the 1990s nor about the internationally funded and...

-The Hindu   The inordinate delay on the part of the Congress-led UPA government in enacting laws to prevent sexual assault on women is taking a heavy toll and exposing them to various forms of violence, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and MP Brinda Karat sAid. Ms. Karat was here to participate in the 12th State conference of the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AidWA) which concluded on Wednesday. Later,...

More than one billion people will not get the basic sanitation and the clean water promised as such projects shrink sharply as a proportion of global Aid budgets. A key development goal to halve the number of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015 will be missed because donor countries have diverted Aid money away from unglamorous water projects, according to the World Bank and the charity WaterAid. Aid to...

-IANS   Under attack from civil society activists, the media and some of his own party members, over perceived communication gap over critical issues, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided on a media outreach plan that kicks off with a meeting with some senior editors Wednesday. The prime minister will meet a group of editors of regional and national dailies Wednesday, government sources sAid. Manmohan Singh has so far held only three nationally...