As minister of statistics and programme implementation, SRIprakash Jaiswal should have the data to quantify how much money can buy. On Tuesday, making yet another pitch for increasing the annual local area fund for MPs, he said: “With prices soaring, Rs 5 crore — what we are seeking — would (be) equivalent to the Rs 2 crore given ten years ago.” His ire was directed at the Planning Commission for...

The State of Environment Report 2009, a report put out by the Union government that is meant to be an up-to-date official view on environmental issues says that “...Himalayan glaciers could disappear in the next 50 years” It may have gone on an offensive against a controversial report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Indian glaciers disappearing by 2035, but till August, the ministry of environment and forests...

Violence in West Bengal’s western districts has reached crisis proportions. Each day, one or more cadre member or sympathizer of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] is killed either by Maoists or the Trinamul Congress (TMC). The Maoists have found common cause with the TMC, a breakaway from the Congress Party in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, whose authoritarian populism draws from both Juan and Evita Peron, leads the TMC. Backed...

Civil society organisations have demanded the speedy passage and implementation of the proposed National Health Bill, 2009, but with certain changes that ensure health as a universal entitlement to all sections of society. SRInath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, sought a National Health Act to ensure equitable distribution of medical facilities across the population. “The National Health Act should be on the lines of the Right to...

The United Progressive Alliance’s flagship scheme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), could have saved the day for India when the world fought against rising job losses on account of century’s worst ever recession , says a report by the International Labour Organisation. “There has been much progress in extending social protection through NREGA, which helped in maintaining levels of consumption and poverty,” the report on Global Employment Trends 2010...