The Government is finalising the blueprint for a scheme to enable a vast majority of the urban poor to own a house.   The housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) ministry has proposed to stand in as guarantor for home loans up to Rs 5 lakh. Under the scheme, banks would be reimbursed up to 90 per cent in case the poor default on these loans. The scheme, targeting those earning less than...

Infant deaths resulting from a recent clinical trial in India have led to a media outcry. But few have considered how explosive these revelations actually are, or the problematic use and application of the Right to Information Act. When India’s Right to Information Act came into force in 2005, the legislation’s text acknowledged the conflict that could arise from revealing certain information, pointing out that there was a need to ‘harmonise’...

FAO to give suggestions on the pesticide to committee on persistent organic pollutants An ad hoc working group has been established to review and identify the information gaps on alternatives to endosulfan and to assess these alternatives. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will be roped in to undertake studies on integrated pest management alternatives to endosulfan. This was decided by the seventh Persistent Organic Pollutant Review Committee (POPRC) of the Stockholm...

Harish Hande, a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, has brought LIGht to some of the poorest and darkest corners of Karnataka. Priya is a resident of a village just a few kilometers away from Bangalore's international airport. Her home has never had electricity. Till a few months back, she used to prepare for her examinations without electricity. Then, a miracle happened.   And the man who came to her rescue was Harish Hande....

Only in India does redistribution, which keeps the poor and marginalised out of the mainstream of the economy, pass for inclusive growth. In much of the rest of the world, inclusive growth would mean giving the poor and marginalised a direct stake in the economy with fast-growing industries and services absorbing them into gainful employment and, thus, making them true participants and partners in the growth process.  But in India, we...