-The Hindu Business Line   Inter-state inequalities have significantly narrowed in the last decade, but nutrition and sanitation are still big concerns, says the Human Development Report 2011. The findings of the report are significant as they come a day before the full National Development Council meeting, headed by the Prime Minister, on Saturday. The report, brought out by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) and the Planning Commission, measures the human...

The year 2010 endured 950 natural disasters, 90 percent of which were weather-related and cost the global community well over 130 billion dollars. From wildfires in Brazil to record rainfall in the United States to the severe drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, it has become clear to many that quick and radical decisions need to be made about the world's future.  One of the biggest advocates of this position...

IT IS one of the inspirational legends of Indian journalism that James Hickey, founder and editor of the Bengal Gazette — this country’s first newspaper, with its first edition going back to January 1780 — was a fearless seeker of the truth, taken to court and imprisoned by Warren Hastings, then governor-general. Reality is a little different. Hickey’s paper was often a gossipy, yellow rag. It thought nothing of publishing scurrilous...

India’s transparency law – Right To Information – will not change but the government wants to restrict its applicability through other laws. Two new draft laws --- National Sports Development Bill and National Nuclear Safety Authority --- have specific provisions prohibiting disclosing information in addition to the exemption clauses already in the RTI law. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday wanted a “critical look” at these exemption clauses asking to examine changes...

The popular outrage over the official definition of poverty at abysmally low levels of daily income, of Rs 26 in rural areas and Rs 32 in urban areas, assumes the state will deny basic services to a household whose income is above the figure. This is totally erroneous. There is no mechanism in the hands of the government to ascertain income or expenditure to identify the 'poor' on the ground. The...