-The Telegraph The SR Hashim committee, formed in 2010 to help identify the urban poor, has suggested criteria to automatically count in and count out households from the poverty list and assign scores to the rest. According to the recommendations, ownership of computer with an Internet connection will exclude a household from the poverty list. The report has been submitted to the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry. Sources in the ministry described...

-The World Bank blog "Five years ago, I was no one," said Kunti Devi to me, sitting up straight against the wall of her one-room mud hut in Bara, a small village in India's eastern state of Bihar. "Now, people know me by my own name, not just by the name of my children." I was sitting on the floor, across from Devi, a mother of eight, who belonged to one of...

-The Hindu Mandya: In a single biggest raid in recent years against the "bonded labour system" in the State, Revenue and Police officials on Thursday raided a stone quarry unit on the outskirts of Bangalore and rescued 19 migrant labourers. Among them nine are minors. The rescued labourers are from Mahbubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh. They alleged that they had been working since past 13 years as bonded labourers at the quarry,...

-The Hindu Violence against the state is tragic but it contains the seeds of rejection. Only an inclusive approach that respects human rights can eliminate extremism Perhaps no other chain of events in the recent past has had a more direct and substantial impact on the life of human beings across the world than acts of terror. Terrorism has not only affected our lives directly, but has also allowed the state to...

-The Hindu Of the 112 projects approved between 2008-12, none were completed Bangalore: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said there is "no indication of that all habitations would have access to safe drinking water anytime in the near future" given the pace of coverage and competition of projects under National Rural Drinking Water Programme is very slow. The CAG report on Local Bodies for the period 2007-12, which was...