-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Made up of eight states and accounting for about 4% of India's population, the northeast region is better known for its separatist movements and incendiary ethnic conflicts. It has 25 Lok Sabha members, 14 of them from Assam, and so, does not draw serious attention from political parties involved in the national sweepstakes. The region receives huge funds from the central government that prop up...

-The Hindu Per capita entitlements under the food security bill will not cover beneficiaries as comprehensively as household entitlements The government hopes to secure in this session of Parliament, approval for the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) so that it can replace the food security ordinance. The NFSB, on which the ordinance is based, guarantees supplementary nutrition services through anganwadis for all children under six, midday meals for schoolchildren, and, very importantly, maternity...

-Down to Earth Government claims a huge drop in poverty numbers but critical indicators-health, malnutrition and wages-continue to be grim. So how did the poor fare better? After a long, long time there was good news to splash as media led with the report of a record 21.9 per cent drop in poverty levels. The July 24 newspaper headlines were celebratory as they reported the Planning Commission's findings that poverty rates...

Ashish Bose coined the term BIMARU in a paper to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s to highlight the economic backwardness of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He tells Somesh Jha he is not inspired by the Planning Commission’s bogus poverty figures. He says it is time the commission wound up. Excerpts:   * You coined the term 'BIMARU', but these states performed well in alleviating poverty in...

-The Hindu Dip in Congress' vote share from SCs, STs, Muslims - its traditional support base Cities are driving the anti-UPA sentiment, while marginalised communities - the Congress' traditional base - are more satisfied than dissatisfied with UPA-II's performance. These findings emerge from a CNN IBN-The Hindu-election tracker poll of 19,062 demographically representative respondents. Just 38 per cent of respondents expressed satisfaction with UPA-II's performance (with 22 per cent undecided), down from 49...