A group comprising 24 development journalists from 21 countries of Asia, Africa and South America visited the Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants' Society here over the weekend to get exposure to grassroots work in community mobilisation, poverty alleviation and women's empowerment. The mid-career journalists are attending a four-month course conducted under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation and Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan of the Ministry of External Affairs...

Many of our politicians would still rather ignore the informal sector and the women who form its backbone. They do so at our peril. India is undergoing enormous change. In a very short time, many Indians have become much richer, and our country is now often described as a “world player” economically and politically. Despite this transformation, our rich history, culture and traditions rightly remain important. Indeed, our success rests...

Even after four decades of work, the number of fully immunized children in the area was a shocking 3% due to absent nurses and indifferent parents Seva Mandir, a 40-year-old non-governmental organization, began working with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in 2003 to evaluate full immunization levels among children in and around Udaipur. Even after four decades of work, the number of fully immunized children in the area was...

“It would improve the standard of life of people in the rural areas”  United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark has praised successful implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rajasthan, saying it would improve the standard of life of people in the rural areas and stop their migration to cities. “Conceived as the biggest employment generation programme in the world, the NREGS is seemingly yielding...

An empowered group of ministers (eGoM) has urged the government to delink the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) from nutritional security and keep the issue price of wheat and rice flexible under the Act. But a top official of the agriculture ministry said some members of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government want NFSA to be an “umbrella legislation” addressing social security concerns. “The finance ministry is of the view that...