Weighed down by an unending season of corruption, the political leadership of ruling the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has stepped in to rescue the regime’s flagship rural employment guarantee scheme from discredit due to mounting allegations of endemic irregularities. The National Advisory Council of the UPA, headed by Sonia Gandhi, on Wednesday asked the Manmohan Singh government to expedite notification of the much-awaited rules that would allow public scrutiny of the...

“Just as the civil society has been involved in the formulation of a Lokpal Bill, so should people's representatives be allowed to participate in framing a new, comprehensive law on Development Planning that includes resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by projects.” To intensify stir This is the demand of pradhans of several western Uttar Pradesh villages, who, along with along with representatives of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) spoke...

-FnBNews   The World Bank, like many analysts, is in favour of cash-transfer of subsidy for foodgrains to the poor in India. This suggestion was made in a recent report on Social Protection for a Changing India, drafted by the World Bank for the Government of India. Using the National Sample Survey data, the report stated that the Public Distribution System (PDS) continued to absorb substantial public resources at almost 1 per...

If the problems are macro, think micro. That seems to have been the guiding principle for Lekha-Mendha, the Maharashtra village that last month became the first in India to win the right to grow, harvest and sell bamboo. Such rights are the key goal of a five-year-old central law which aims to give tribal communities control over some resources of the jungles they live in. “There is no point in looking out...

-News One   Though India’s social sector spending is higher than many other developing countries, one of its flagship welfare programs — the public distribution system (PDS) — is fraught with leakages, a World Bank report said Wednesday. The PDS scheme, which consumes around one percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and covers upto 25 percent of the poor households, has had limited success, as only 41 percent of the...