Barely a month after Sonia Gandhi flagged concerns over shortcomings in the implementation of UPA’s flagship MNREGA scheme and sought strengthening of social audit done by the gram sabha, as mandated under the Act, the government is looking at the scope of amending the Act to allow for better accounting scrutiny by the Central agencies. A meeting convened by Law Minister Veerappa Moily with Rural Development Ministry officials Monday examined...

United Nation Development Programme's India Urban Poverty Report, 2009 has pegged the number of slum dwellers in Uttar Pradesh at 44 lakh. The sample survey, which was conducted under the 58th round of the National Sample Survey Organisation, also suggests that UP is next only to Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, where 1.2 crore and 52 lakh urban poor are apparently living. The high numbers, however, it appears, are not the only...

Sixty-three persons, including promoters and CEOs of 10 telecom firms have come under its scanner in the 2G spectrum case, the CBI on Tuesday told the Supreme Court which expressed satisfaction over the ongoing probe. The central government, which is also party to the case, informed a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly that it is in favour of setting up a special court to try...

Urbanization comes with its share of problems. Your new job lands you in a new city and you need necessities such as a mobile connection, a broadband connection or a bank account transfer as soon as possible. Your only hope in such cases till now is maybe a letter from the employer authenticating your address. Enter UID, the unique identity project headed by Nandan Nilekani, which promises to give an acceptable...

A growing number of endangered olive ridley sea turtles have been getting killed in Eastern India’s coastal state Orissa by mechanized vessels defying a fishing ban on one of the world’s largest turtle sanctuaries, Gahirmatha. While the government said "no more than 800" were killed since November last year, environmentalists counter that the casualty count of these tiny turtles is actually 5,000. The problem illustrates the situation that confronts Orissa and other...