-Frontline In a situation of increasing life expectancy and crumbling traditional support structures, a universal social pension scheme that does not rely on contribution by a person or an employer can help the elderly. INDIA prides itself on being a "young" society, likely to benefit from a demographic dividend as children and young people move into working age groups over the next decade. This optimistic view assumes that society will be able...

-Frontline Childhood TB has been neglected for decades, but in the past few years the WHO has begun to realise its real impact in terms of incidence, prevalence and mortality. THE number of annual new tuberculosis (TB) cases in India has been nearly 2.2 million for the past couple of years. Many of these infected people would have been in contact with children aged under five years before being diagnosed and,...

-Right to Food Campaign Please click here to access the Press Release pertaining to release of delayed wages to NREGA Workers in Khunti, Jharkhand.    ...

-Outlook The state elections rolled out smoothly, but it's money power which ruled on the ground As we celebrate the smooth working of a massive electoral exercise-simplistically dubbed by many as the semi-final to the greatest show on earth, General Elections 2014-a realisation has dawned that the role of ‘money power' is reaching alarming proportions. Sure, elections are more fool-proof today than in the past, and most (rightly) salute the EC...

-The Hindu Looking to capture demand effectively for its flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Ministry of Rural Development will pro-actively register demand in select districts of the country. The Ministry has launched a "Kaam Mango Abhiyan" after recognising that the decline in people demanding work under MGNREGA is not necessarily due to a lack of demand but caused by a failure to capture demand effectively. This...