The Unique Identification Authority of India is already seeing a massive explosion for bank accounts among people enrolling for Aadhaar or the unique IDs issued by the authority, its chairman Nandan Nilekani said. Some 80% of people enrolling for the IDs want bank accounts, he said at a lecture here organised by the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance on Thursday. “If we are able to provide every such person with...

The Union government on Friday strongly defended the interception of Niira Radia's telephones, saying that this was done because of a probe into complaints alleging that she "as an agent of foreign intelligence agencies" and was "indulging in anti-national activities." A joint affidavit filed by ministries of home and finance as well as the Income Tax department said, "A complaint was received by the finance minister dated November 16, 2007, inter...

South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details)  However the 2011 United...

The public face of the journalist is of a brave, feisty adversary to the rapacious establishment, not the party animal who will wilt before the charms of the corporate lobbyist.To succeed, a politician has to keep his ear to the ground. Yet success can be cruelly destructive; it is so deceptively flattering that it eventually insulates him from the very thing that has made him a success: public opinion. For...

“Resource crunch often makes people depressed, especially for small farmers like us who are used to it for decades. We often live in severe cash-strapped situations and learn to adjust or adapt; sometimes we just succumb to it,” says farmer Mr.Vikas Shinde from Jalgoan, Maharashtra, who developed a motor cycle operated water pump to irrigate his fields.“The government just does not seem interested in encouraging farmers,” he says.“The National Rural...