Bihar is one of the poorest performing States in the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS), noted a team of activists and researchers led by social scientist Jean Dreze. Professor Dreze, along with activists Ashish Ranjan and Kamayani Swami of the Jan Jagran Abhiyan (JJA), and economist Reetika Khera, on Wednesday alerted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about the dismal state of affairs. According to data presented by the team, Bihar lags...

Days after several persons were hospitalised after exposure to radioactive waste at a West Delhi scrap market, it emerges that the only data available with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) is almost three years old. And even that is alarming: 5,300 tonnes of hazardous waste was generated in the Capital every year, according to the survey last conducted in 2007. The state pollution control body has no information on...

Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge would present a briefing on the country''s highly successful National Rural Employment generation Scheme at the first ever meet of G-20 labour ministers here today. Top officials from the US Department of Labour, organisers of the event, said the innovative 100-day rural employment guarantee scheme has been successful beyond the expectations of almost every one. "India has learnt and has refined the strategy. So there is...

Karupayee is one of the first at the panchayat union office, hoping there's work for her under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment generation Scheme (MNREGS). Her story is similar to millions of other Indians who have benefited from the government programme providing for 100 days of guaranteed employment. But Karupayee is 101 years old. Karupayee of Thanakankulam village in Thiruparankundram panchayat union in Madurai district is probably the oldest...

Study based on better data, more sophisticated statistical methods Among poor countries progress varied considerably The improvements represent “hope at last” For the first time in decades, researchers are reporting a significant drop worldwide in the number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth, to about 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980.The findings, published in the medical journal The Lancet, challenge the prevailing view of maternal mortality as an intractable...