The latest report on the progress of millennium development goals (MDG) by the United Nations has said that robust social protection and employment schemes such as India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) reduce poverty and reverse inequality. In its report, ‘What Will it Take to Achieve Millennium Development Goals,' the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said the MNREGS is known for improving livelihoods through legal guarantee of...

In normal circumstances, E. Altrin, a fisherman from Rameswaram, would have sold the juvenile lobsters, each weighing 50 gm, in the market after the catch. That is no longer the case. Nowadays, whenever he gets the juveniles he shifts them to the floating cage in the sea. “After four months in the cages, these juveniles grow in size and weigh 200 gm. If I sell the juveniles I will get only...

India has the most inefficient bureaucracy in Asia and red-tape is much worse than in China, says a survey. In the ranking of 12 countries, India has been named as having the most inefficient bureaucracy followed by Indonesia and the Philippines, according to the survey of expatriate business executives conducted by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC). Quoting the consultancy, news agency AFP has reported that bureaucratic red-tape is...

The task of providing water where needed is becoming increasingly difficult across the world. Countries have, in recent decades, been investing in infrastructure designed to alleviate water shortages. But the response has, for the most part, overlooked the problem posed by the deteriorating state of aquatic resources. If the growing crisis is to be effectively addressed, water use needs to be linked with environmental care. In many places, even where water...

Indigenous Peoples worldwide continue to be among the poorest of the poor and continue to suffer from higher poverty, lower education, and a greater incidence of disease and discrimination than other groups, according to a new World Bank study: Indigenous Peoples, Poverty, and Development. Released today at the Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the study offers a "global snapshot” of a set of indicators for...