-The Economist A huge identity scheme promises to help India’s poor—and to serve as a model for other countries INDIA’S economy might be thriving, but many of its people are not. This week Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, said his compatriots should be ashamed that over two-fifths of their children are underfed. They should be outraged, too, at the infant mortality, illiteracy, lack of clean drinking water and countless other curses that...
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Salt under quality-check scanner by Kounteya Sinha
After milk, salt - another most common food item - is under the Food Safety Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI) scanner. The FSSAI is collecting salt samples from across metros to check iodine levels. The study aims to find out how much iodine is finally available in the salt when it is being sold to consumers. "We want to see how much iodine is being consumed through salt by consumers. The study...
More »Adivasi Predicament in Chhattisgarh by Supriya Sharma
Not only are the Forest Rights Act and the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act routinely violated in Chhattisgarh, the adivasis are also short-changed on legislative representation and reservations in government jobs. As the state cedes land to capital while reducing the adivasis to an ornamental presence, there is increasing assertion of adivasi identity, born out of class predicaments and experiences of displacement as much as notions of indigeneity. Supriya Sharma...
More »Blocked Development by Lola Nayar
The much-vaunted NREGA has defaulted on many of its promises “There are many households in our village who have NREGA cards but have not sought work for over two years,” says 32-year-old Umesh Kumar, gram pradhan of Bhainswal village, in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. In fact, Kumar recounts having to actually go around persuading people to come for work “whenever we get projects for implementation under NREGA”. This first-time...
More »Black money: I-T gets wary about secret bank account names; asks for oath
-PTI In order to guard against possible leakage of names figuring in the secret bank accounts lists it has received from foreign shores, the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT has ordered the I-T department to obtain a signed undertaking from any government entity or department who demands the data for their own probe. The CBDT fears that if these names are leaked and they are publicised, global financial bodies like OECD...
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