-The Times of India The debate about Planning Commission's controversial poverty line could finally be buried. The UPA is now mulling doing away with the BPL-APL divide and providingsubsidized grains to all except those who get automatically excluded in the ongoing socio-economic caste census. But on the flipside, it also wants to reduce the entitlement from the proposed 35 kg to 25 kg instead for the poor. Along with the move to...
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Barefoot-An unfinished agenda by Harsh Mander
We have five million children in the labour market, say official figures. Their actual numbers may be four times as many. As a nation, we have failed each one of them… Millions of our children still labour today, in factories, farms, kilns, mines, homes and city waste dumps, when they should be in school or in a playground. We profoundly fail these children, collectively depriving them of education, play, rest, healthy...
More »MPs owe Rs 7.30 crore in phone bills by Chetan Chauhan
It seems the people's representatives are oblivious to the fact that making phone calls costs money and they have to pay bills like the man on the street. Altogether 405 present and former members of Parliament owe Rs 7.30 crore to public sector Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd for bills not paid for years. Every MP is entitled to two fixed line telephone connections – one in Delhi and other in his...
More »What’s Wrong and Right with Microfinance by David Hulme and Thankom Arun
Recent events in south Asia have led to an unexpected reversal in the narrative of microfinance, long presented as a development success. Despite charges of poor treatment of clients, exaggeration of the impact on the poorest as well as the risks of credit bubbles, the sector can play a non-negligible role in reaching financial services to low-income households. In regulating the sector, there is need for caution in setting interest...
More »Reviving Universal PDS: A Step Towards Food Security by Suranjita Ray
An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...
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