-The Economic Times   NEW DELHI: The rural development ministry wants states to raise a cadre of so-called barefoot engineers to boost the effectiveness of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) by helping to speed up wage payments that are getting delayed by as much as three months because there aren't enough employees to monitor the work being done under the jobs programme. The ministry wants to rope in those...

-Down to Earth   People of West Bengal's Sunderbans region are setting up grain banks to safeguard against food crisis Subedan Bibi's mud hut is a few metres from the banks of the Bakchara river, a distributary of the Hugli in Sunderbans region of South 24 Parganas. When the river is in spate she and most others of Goyadham village move to the main market in the nearby block. "Floods and storms destroy...

-Tehelka     Survival International is an NGO that works for the welfare of indigenous tribal populations all over the world. Recently, it launched the Proud, Not Primitive campaign in India. Survival’s press officer Alice Bayer was in India to spread the word. Speaking to G Vishnu, she spells out what is wrong with the development versus tribal rights debate.  Edited Excerpts from an Interview * Tell us about the Proud, Not Primitive campaign? Government...

-Tehelka   It is time India had a Good Samaritan law  It has been more than a year since the Nirbhaya rape case stirred the nation. Apart from the brutality inflicted upon the victim what else became a stigma for our society was the fact that no one came to the victim's rescue when the two were lying on the street naked and grievously injured. Of course people did cross them in luxurious...

-The Times of India   VISAKHAPATNAM: The deadly duo of scorching heat and poll fever is taking its toll on the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the three north coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam. According to the reports, while nearly 400 NREGS workers have fallen sick in the last two weeks due to their punishing double duty under extreme weather conditions -- NREGS works...