Six years after a Human Development Report on Gujarat was published, the state government has embarked on another survey for a similar report, albeit district-wise, whose publication date is yet to be decided. So far, study reports on five districts — Surendranagar, Jamnagar, Sabarkantha, Dangs and Surat — have been submitted whose drafts have been reviewed and sent back to the authors for consideration. G K Vyas, Director, Human Development, said that...

The Centre has nixed a demand from Delhi MLAs for a sharp 300 per cent salary hike. The Union government sent back the proposal saying a pay revision isn't due in Delhi until 2012 and the proposed conveyance allowances are way over the top for a small state like Delhi. Law and justice minister Mangatram Singhal confirmed that the Centre had indeed shot down the move.''The Centre has said a revision is...

Rahul Gandhi, the general secretary of India’s Congress party, often says that there exist “two Indias” — one of the rich, and one of the poor. Those two Indias were in evidence a couple of weeks ago, when closely timed events on opposite sides of the planet brought into relief the deep divides that in many ways define this country. In Mumbai on Nov. 7, President Barack Obama told a group of...

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Friday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to defer issuing the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification till the apprehensions of fisherfolk and environmentalists are allayed. In a letter, Mr. Karunanidhi said there was a strong apprehension among the coastal communities that the draft notification would cause widespread destruction to the livelihood of fishing communities and other poor communities in the coastal areas, resulting in damage to coastal...

The Global Hunger Index report paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. WITH the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals just five years away, the 2010 Global Hunger Index report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some 29 countries in these regions, it says, have levels of hunger that are alarming or extremely alarming....