-The Economic Times   As the government gears up for a year-long campaign to spread awareness about the Right to Education, a report on teaching and learning in rural India finds that progress in learning ability of students has not been commensurate to the massive investment in primary education and increase in enrolment. The study conducted by the ASER Centre, a network of civil society organisations led by Pratham, in collaboration with...

The report will be made available to all States Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said his Ministry would make available to States the details of audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General into rural development expenditure. “There was some ambiguity on this. I do not want any ambiguity whatsoever. All rural development expenditures of the Central government will be subjected to CAG audit in all States. I have had three...

-ENS Economic Bureau   The government today approved a national policy for manufacturing that aims to increase the sector’s share in the economy to 22 per cent from 16 per cent and create 100 million jobs over 10 years. The policy will ensure this by facilitating national manufacturing investment zones, which will offer faster clearances. “It hopes to... give comfort to investors through a single-window clearance mechanism,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma...

The pointlessness of the debate over Indian measures of poverty becomes clear when we look at the country’s human development record. If per capita real incomes have risen so well during the last two decades since reforms were introduced, surely that should mean better lives for most Indians. Forget about catching up with China, there is increasing evidence of India falling behind Bangladesh in terms of key human development indicators...

With institutional healthcare being prohibitively expensive, more women in rural India are choosing to deliver at home than in hospitals and healthcare facilities, says a new report brought out by Chittorgarh-based NGO, Prayas, in partnership with Oxfam India. The 'Study of the trends in out-of-pocket payments in healthcare during National Rural Health Mission period (2005-2010)', released on October 12 in the national capital, was conducted across five Indian states - Assam,...