-The Asian Age Ahead of the Union Budget, senior ministers of the UPA appear to be petitioning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with claims and counter-claims over the performance of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MNREGA).   After finance minister P. Chidambaram apparently tried to impress upon the Prime Minister for cut in MNREGA budget, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, in a letter to Dr Singh, has rebutted his colleague’s perception about...

-The Economic Times KORAPUT/NEW DELHI: Villagers protesting against Hindalco's plan to mine bauxite at Mali Parbat in the Koraput district in Odisha have come up with a unique proposal that offers to compensate the state for its loss in revenue from royalty. Forty one villages from the district, two thirds of whose largely tribal population live below poverty line, have proposed to soon pass panchayat resolutions promising to pay Rs 35 crore,...

-Counter Currents The Aadhaar scheme of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is to provide India's billion-plus people with a unique identification number. Enrolling into the scheme was and still is not mandatory, though it was mentioned that it would be difficult for people to access public services in the absence of enrolment. The scheme requires individuals to provide their photograph, fingerprints and iris scan together with documentary personal information,...

-Hard News Media Despite the high economic growth, India has the highest proportion of malnourished children in the world. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and others gathered at IIT Delhi to discuss the Food Security Bill The jam packed Dogra auditorium of IIT Delhi was a testimony to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s popularity amongst students, teachers, activists, economists, among others who had congregated to hear him talk on the...

-The Hindu Koynanagar (Maharashtra): First, a dam, then an earthquake and finally a tiger reserve — families in Satara district’s Koyna have been displaced thrice in one generation. In 1960, the people had to move, paving the way for the Koyna dam; in 1967 following the earthquake and then for the Koyna tiger reserve in 1985, says Jagannath Vibhute, an activist of the Shramik Mukti Dal and one of the many...