-PTI Anna Hazare on Sunday returned to his favourite mode of protest -- hunger strike -- in Delhi after his flop show in Mumbai three months ago, this time protesting against the "deaf and dumb" government which is "not doing anything" to protect whistleblowers fighting corruption. Hazare, after his usual visit to Rajghat before any such protest in Delhi, came to the capital's dharna hotspot Jantar Mantar at around 11am to loud...

-The Telegraph The controversial poverty data from the Planning Commission has a message for Mamata Banerjee: the Marxists have brought down the number of destitute in Bengal but much more needs to be done. Latest data suggest that the number of poor has dipped by 7.5 percentage points in Bengal between 2004-05 and 2009-10, which covers the last five years of Left rule in the state. Poverty in urban areas in Bengal came...

Montek Singh says he is willing to revise poverty estimates on the basis of expert opinion Though the incidence of poverty has come down over five years from 2004-05 to 2009-10, it is a startling fact that inequality has increased, with fewer people controlling income. Union Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia admitted on Tuesday that income distribution was not at the desired level and inequality increased in both rural and...

-DNA The percentage of people living below the poverty line in karnataka has come down by 9.7% in the estimate of poverty for 2009-10, released by the Planning Commission on Monday. In 2004-05, the percentage of people living below poverty line was 33.3%. In 2009-10, it was 23.6%. Apart from karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand also recorded a decline of about 10 percentage points. In karnataka,...

The first-ever India Human Development Awards Manav Vikas were announced in New Delhi. Kottayam in Kerala, Khargone in Madhya Pradesh; Udupi in karnataka and Malda in West Bengal have been recognized for excellence in the quality of Human Development Reports for their districts. The overall award for excellence went to West Bengal with two districts amongst the eight finalists.  The Manav Vikas India Human Development Awards, instituted by the Planning Commission...