At home, the government is facing a barrage of allegations over corruption in public affairs, but here the Congress-led UPA-II was hailed for embracing an inclusive scheme like National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). On Tuesday, the United Nations released a Global Assessment Report (GAR), praising NREGA and asked other nations to emulate the programme that has helped empower millions of marginalized. In a power-point presentation made during the release of the...

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus resigned as managing director of Grameen Bank, the micro-credit network he pioneered, expressing the hope that it would retain its "independence and character". The government has rejected the demand by the bank's directors that Yunus be made the bank's chairman and has also turned down the argument of the bank being "independent", saying it is subject to the laws governing the banking sector. In his resignation letter made...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed anguish over the high rate of malnourishment-related deaths in the country even as the Centre said that 50 lakh additional tonnes of PDS grains should be distributed among below poverty level (BPL) families by next two weeks. A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma repeated its earlier stance that if godowns were overflowing or foodgrains were being destroyed on account of other reasons,...

Endosulfan, the pesticide which is widely believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths, diseases and devastation, was able to save its own life largely because of India’s questionable efforts at global forums. The controversial pesticide has been in news for a long time because of its harmful effects on humans, wild life and the environment. Obviously the $100 million industry is going out of the way to defend the...

Let the offenders know that the gallows await them: Supreme Court directive to trial and High Courts It is time to stamp out these barbaric, feudal practices which are a slur on our nation There is nothing ‘honourable' in such killings, says Justice Markandey Katju To stamp out the barbaric and feudal practice of ‘honour killings,' the Supreme Court on Monday directed the trial/High Courts to award the death sentence to the convicted...