Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, members of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) — governing body for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme — on Tuesday kept away from ‘MNREGS Sammelan 2010’ here, describing it as a “ceremonial function.” In their joint letter to Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi, the social activists, who had played a crucial role in shaping the manual job guaranteeing law, said, “We see little...

Most central ministers have signed at the end of last year a performance-tracking document, the sweeping nature of which has started to sink in only now. Although the ministers say they have no quarrel with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s objective of improving governance, some resent that their performance will now be assessed by a set of bureaucrats. “We are now at the mercy of some babus in the cabinet secretariat who have...

Are the world and human society in general ready and willing to take action on critical issues that require a major change in the manner in which we produce and consume goods and services?  The science of climate change is now well established. This is the result of painstaking work of over two decades carried out by thousands of scientists drawn from across the globe to assess every aspect of...

The third State Finance Commission today recommended that the state provide Rs 2,641.35 crore grant to panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies for their inclusive growth and capacity building. A 264-page report of various recommendations was presented to Governor M.C. Bhandare and chief minister Naveen Patnaik by commission chairman Sudhakar Panda this afternoon. “We have recommended that the state provide Rs 2,220.25 crore grant to panchayati raj institutions and Rs 421.10...

Earthquakes were the deadliest natural disasters in the past decade, accounting for 60 per cent of deaths caused by such hazards, a senior United Nations official said today, Stressing the importance of investing in disaster risk reduction. UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlström stated that earthquakes remain a serious threat for millions of people worldwide as eight of the most populous cities in the world are built on...