Investing first in the world’s most disadvantaged children and communities can save millions of lives and help spur progress towards achieving internationally agreed development targets, according to a new study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The agency found that an equity-based approach, focusing on the needs of the most disadvantaged children, can be a cost-effective strategy to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eight targets that include slashing...

Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Santa Sihna on Sunday called upon the Orissa Government, civil society and all the stakeholders including children to play a key role in aiding the commission so as to bring changes in lives of each and every child through Right to Education (RTE). Attending a State level convention jointly organised by NCPCR and Orissa Alliance on Convention on rights of the...

The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has reviewed the progress of Biju Gram Jyoti Programme on Monday at the Orissa Secretariat through Video Conferencing. The Chief Minister has instructed to expedite the electrification of the BPL families and Lift Irrigation Points. The Chief Minister had instructed on 21st May through Video Conferencing to complete the works of 2007-08 and 2008-09 by 31st May but it has not been completed in any...

Realising it was losing the turf war with the hyperactive Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on a subject that has become a top priority for the United Progressive Alliance government, the once comatose Tribal Affairs Ministry has, in recent weeks, suddenly begun to assert its rights over its responsibilities. The first sign of this realisation was reflected in Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal Bhuria shooting off letters in quick succession on...

Even though the West Bengal government is yet to confirm that suicides by farmers in the Ausgram block of Bardhaman district are drought-related, following the third incident on Wednesday, district authorities admitted on Thursday that the farmers were “under a Stress of debt burden.” “It is not possible to be sure whether the suicides are drought-related or not, but it is clear that the economic condition of the farmers was not...