In recent years, the agricultural growth rate has tended to be lower than the population growth rate. This year, the former is nearing the target of 4%. But we still have a very large percentage of undernourished children, women and men. Poverty and destitution also remain stubborn. The Indian food security enigma rises from the mismatch between the grain mountains and the hungry millions. What are the prospects for ensuring...

Taking forward the pro-poor schemes of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy announced in style his New Year gift: a housing scheme for the urban poor. With a proposed budget of Rs.5,000 crore, the project, ‘Rajiv Awaas Yojna', will ensure pucca houses to the poor in every slum across the State. Announcing the scheme amid much fanfare during a surprise visit to a slum in the city's outskirts, the...

Right to information (RTI) activists in the city have demanded the state government to invoke section 17 (3) (e) of the RTI Act, 2005, to remove Ramanand Tiwari from the post of state information commissioner (SIC), as his son owns a flat in the controversial Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai. President of Nagrik Chetna Manch, Maj Gen (retd) SCN Jatar, president of Sajag Nagrik Manch, Vivek Velankar, Surajya Sangharsh Samiti chief...

NRHM needs to revitalise systems, monitor their functional performance and investigate their impact on the indices of health. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005 to bring about a dramatic improvement in the health system and health status of people in rural India. It seeks to provide universal access to health care, which is affordable, equitable, and of good quality. It aims at making architectural corrections to basic...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured a delegation of TDP-Left parties combine that he would look into the issue of alleged suicide by farmers in Andhra Pradesh who were severely affected in the unprecedented rains and cyclonic storm in the last few months in the State. The delegation highlighted the plight of farmers who were hit as their produce like paddy, cotton, tobacco, red gram, chillies and oil seeds were damaged/discoloured...