The poor in India's cities are in many ways worse off than those in rural areas, says Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja, pointing out that the urban population is set to double in the next 25 years to over 600 million. 'About 300 million people live in towns and cities underserved by utilities, with inadequate housing and increasingly choking traffic. The condition of the urban poor is by...

A seven-state survey on rural internet awareness revealed that close to 84% were ignorant of the medium’s existence. Of the ones who did know about it, 85% used the net only to access emails, 13% to know about the latest farming techniques and 8% to look up fertilisers, among other uses. We can acknowledge that internet penetration so far has been weak; but the past is not a guide to...

Inflation is in the news. Double-digit inflation persists, concentrated in prices of food and necessities. The retail prices of pulses are in the range of Rs 80-100 per kg. Seasonal vegetables retail at Rs 30-40 per kg. Yet, our pink newspapers believe there is little reason for concern. There is a boom in purchases of consumer durables. The middle class is prospering. The poor are better-off with the NREGA. And...

The government is likely to make it mandatory for mining companies to hand over a part of their revenues and make annual payments to land losers, bringing compensation rules in this sector in line with a policy followed by the Haryana government which has won the backing of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. But in a sop to companies, which have been unenthusiastic about earlier plans for profit-sharing, the ministry of...

Under ideal conditions, grain storage options in India are built up from the buffer stock strategies. These, in turn, are derived from fluctuations in grain output and the need to ride through, say, two bad years. To the needs of the required buffer are added the demands from operational requirements and those of grains in transit. Once upon a time, there used to be controversies concerning why should we separately account...