BINDOL (NORTH DIANJPUR): In these arid, impoverished parts, Bindol has another name - kidney village. The wasted, skeletal men and women you would see slumped under the shade of trees are awaiting death with feeble breaths. This is the kidney sale capital of the state, perhaps of the country. Every second home here has someone who has sold his kidney to escape starvation. Many die within years.  Now, the dying men...

-PTI  Back to targeting Congress, Anna Hazare and his close aide Arvind Kejriwal today asked the party to come out clean on its election funding and the money it spent on "helicopters and rallies".  Asking Congress to make public its expenses on its website, Kejriwal said senior party leader Digvijay Singh had repeatedly asked Team Anna to make public the money they collected and then spent on the Lokpal protest.  "We gave all...

-Express News Service Within days of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blaming foreign-funded NGOs for instigating anti-nuclear protests in Koodankulam, the government today booked four NGOs for alleged violation of the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) and deported one German national for reportedly helping the protestors. Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters that the bank accounts of the four NGOs were frozen after it was found that they had been diverting money...

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has criticised UN agencies like the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) for not doing enough to fight hunger and poverty. “Countries, food agencies and Donors aren’t working together in a focused and co-ordinated way to provide the help small farmers need, when they need it,” Gates told the governing council of the IFAD in...

-Zee News   A successful use of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) in Nanded, one of the most backward districts of Maharashtra, has seen groundwater levels improving dramatically over the past three years.  Shrikar Pardeshi, District Collector, received an award from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "Effective Initiative under MGNREGA" for 2010-11 a few days ago.  "(Over last three years) The groundwater level in the district has increased by 9 meters. The...