A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

In its latest report, the Statistical Year Book, India 2014 conveys that India is clearly on track to attain the MDG-2 (achieve universal primary education) and MDG-8 (develop a global partnership for development). However, the results are either mixed or poor in terms of India's performance in achieving the rest of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The chart below provides the MDG scenario from a bird's eye view.   The new...

-The Hindustan Times   The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the secretary, Union ministry of rural development, and chief secretaries of seven states on the basis of an HT investigation which revealed that poor labourers were committing suicide due to delayed payments under MGNREGA. NHRC has asked for reports from the state governments and the ministry of rural development within six weeks. MGNREGA is the UPA's flagship scheme that...

The newly released disability data from Census 2011 shows that in a country of 2.68 crore disabled, nearly 69.5 percent stay in rural areas. Back in 2001, about 75 percent of the country's disabled resided in rural areas. The population of rural disabled persons has increased from about 1.64 crore in 2001 to 1.86 crore in 2011 i.e. by 13.7 percent. However, the population of urban disabled persons has increased...

A new report from Right to Sanitation Campaign in India entitled: In Deep Shit paints a gloomy picture about the position of India's sanitation, and simultaneously draws our attention to the case of ‘missing' and ‘dead' toilets. The report has questioned the claims made by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) that India is making great strides in availing toilets to its rural population through the Nirmal Bharat...