-The Business Standard 8.8 million households live in 33,150 urban slums   It might be difficult to believe but there were less numbers of slums in urban India in 2012 than three years earlier. The number came down by 32.3 per cent to 33,150 in urban parts in 2012, compared with 49,000 in 2009, official data issued on Tuesday show. However, at least 12 per cent of the urban population...

-The Business Standard Intrastate inequality can only be corrected through reform of budgetary allocation formulae between districts within states The hoopla surrounding election results in India is reminiscent of nothing so much as a horse race ("...and X romps home the winner!"). The difference is that for the horse and its handlers, the work is done when the race is over. For the winners in the recent round of state elections,...

-Press Information Bureau (MoSPI) The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the key indicators of urban slums in India, generated from the data collected in its 69th round survey during July 2012 to December 2012. The last survey on slums was conducted as part of the 65th round of NSS (July 2008- June 2009). Slums are part of urban environment and they are identified by...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: A day after sugarcane farmer Satyapal Singh killed himself in Bastauli village of Lakhimpur Kheri, around 200 villagers stormed into the compound of Balrampur Sugar Mill's Buleria unit, protesting against the non-payment of cane arrears. The farmers, who said they intended to cremate Singh's body at the gates of the sugar mill, also vandalised the factory compound, looted the canteen and beat up the mill's chief security...

-The Business Standard Expenses such as employment guarantees and loan waivers are, in effect, subsidies that are classified differently in government accounts Over the last few years, the government announced many policy initiatives that purportedly help the weaker sections of our society. Schemes initiated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) or the distribution of free and affordable food items under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are examples...