-Live Mint The project is part of the country’s ambitious cash-transfer plan for selected welfare programmes Bangalore: karnataka will start transferring cash directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries of India’s rural job guarantee scheme on a pilot basis in seven districts later this year, the state government said. This is part of the country’s ambitious cash-transfer plan for selected welfare programmes that the central government wants to eventually adopt across the...

-The Economic Times Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explaining the positive impact of the rural employment guarantee programme on agricultural production. The note is in response to persistent claims by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar that the rural employment scheme has adversely affected agriculture. Stressing on the positive impact of the UPA's employment programme, Ramesh has suggested that the Prime...

-The Hindu Bangalore: Taking suo motu cognisance of the adverse effect on patients at government hospitals in the State owing to doctors’ strike, the karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to prima facie treat doctors’ conduct as criminal offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and initiate legal action against them. A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice K. Sreedhar Rao and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer passed the order...

-PTI Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Police has set up a special team to trace and arrest the absconding convict in the Suryanelli gangrape case, who appeared on a Malayalam TV channel alleging that Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien was involved in the case, as claimed by the victim. The four-member team has left for karnataka from where Dharmarajan purportedly gave the interview to the channel yesterday and made the startling claim. The...

-The Hindu The aim: to generate a cadre of healthcare providers who will stay put in villages and extend comprehensive healthcare to the needy It is not unusual to find Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in villages closed for long hours, with the patients waiting for a doctor. The reason: many doctors are reluctant to serve in rural areas. Thus, the promised public healthcare to all finds little meaning for the patients in...