-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Dreaded gangster Sriprakash Shukla built his criminal empire on illegal money earned from railway contracts worth crores in places with big railway establishments like Gorakhpur and Banaras. But this could be a thing of the past as the state-run transporter is set to start online tendering of all contracts related to civil works within a month's time. Contracts for civil works worth around Rs 30,000 to...

-PTI NEW DELHI: In a sign of growing woman empowerment, a health ministry survey has found more than 40 per cent of women in 15 states and Union Territories reviewed either owned or had a share in joint property. The first phase of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015-16 held in 15 states and UTs has shown progressive indicators of woman empowerment, besides providing information on population, health and nutrition. "Some new components...

Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made.   Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...

-The Hindu Several instances of in-kind transfers being successfully implemented. Social sector groups want Finance Minister to review the implementation of alternative subsidy systems before going ahead with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). “There have been several instances of in-kind transfers being successfully implemented in various parts of the country. Our appeal to the Finance Minister was to look at all the successful examples of alternative schemes before the government pushes ahead with the...

-Livemint.com Accountability Yatra aims to cover all 33 districts of Rajasthan in 100 days, and to mobilize people join in and put pressure on the state government to bring in an accountability law Santosh Devi and Raju Devi of Raniwara in Jalore district of Rajasthan are from the Bhil tribal community. They are widows of the same man and live with their grandchild. Earnings are meagre here—every time the postman brought pension...