-The Hindu Launched in 2006 by the JD(U)-BJP government at the time, the scheme provided money to all girls who enrolled in Class IX through their schools to buy themselves a cycle. The first independent, scientific evaluation of the impact of Bihar's cycles-for-girls programme has shown that the scheme significantly improved female school enrolment and substantially reduced the gender gap in secondary school enrolment. The study, by Karthik Muralidharan, an economist at...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The Rural Development Ministry has amended a key schedule of the ambitious MNREGA under which they will be guaranteed compensation in case of technical delays in payment of wages. Regretting that delays have been reported from all states despite clear provisions, the Ministry brought out the amendments stipulating that "if the payment is not made within 15 days of closure of the Muster Roll, compensation at the rate of...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi on Friday announced his emergence as the new Congress boss rejecting as "complete nonsense" the ordinance to save convicted legislators from disqualification. In a powerful intervention he sealed the fate of the contentious legislation, embarrassed PM Manmohan Singh hours before his meeting with Barack Obama in Washington DC and publicly rebuked the party old guard. "I'll tell you what my opinion on the ordinance...

-The Business Standard Panel member questioned the choice of sub-components There is some consolation for Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi: Not everyone in a panel headed by Reserve Bank of India Governor and former chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan had favoured the inclusion of Gujarat in the list of less developed states. Economist and social scientist Shaibal Gupta, a member of the panel, had dissented and...

-The Hindu Bihar is the second most backward, and Gujarat is less developed A panel headed by Raghuram Rajan has recommended a new index of backwardness to determine which States need special assistance. The new methodology ranks Odisha as India's most backward State, Bihar, which has been seeking ‘special' status, as the second most backward, and Gujarat as one of the "less developed" States. Goa is India's most developed State. In May this year,...