As Anna Hazare’s fast entered its second day today, the first cracks in his coalition surfaced with criticism over provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill and the method being used by activists to try and push it through. Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde (retd), part of the group that finalised the activists’ version of the Bill, acknowledged he had “objections” to certain clauses. “I would not like to say much else. While...

A campaign to spread awareness on the MNREGS through two television commercials failed to penetrate the rural masses because of faulty planning, an impact assessment study by the Union Ministry of Rural Development has found. The MNREGS awareness campaign was aired on cable and satellite channels in UP, Rajasthan, Bihar and the National Capital Region from January 23 to March 23, 2010. Seven months after the campaign, the ministry decided to conduct...

U.S. support for Muhammad Yunus is so strong that Dhaka may find a negotiated settlement to protect the Nobel Laureate's image and the independence of the Grameen Bank. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus's three-decades-long journey with microfinance was laborious. But he most certainly did not encounter a crisis like the one he is facing now. It was only in December 2010 that the Bangladeshi — who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with...

Sometime this month, Justice N Ramamohana Rao of the Andhra Pradesh High Court will deliver a verdict that will directly impact earnings of the 114 million people who work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Central government's work guarantee programme. The verdict will also indirectly impact earnings of the 400 million workers and labourers who toil in India's factories and fields for 'minimum wages'. The question Justice Rao...

Sober Reflection     * Invoking a clause in the Panchayati Raj Act, panchayats in Punjab are going dry     * The resolutions have to be adopted by two-thirds majority at panchayat meetings     * The excise department has had to shut down 32 liquor vends and relocate 15 of them     * Liquor consumption is high in Punjab: per capita consumption is 12 bottles a year *** It's the state that gave the nation the Patiala...