The Centre is likely to send a team of experts to Jharkhand to monitor the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that it believes has been taken over by a contractors’ mafia allegedly behind recent murders of an activist and labourer associated with the job scheme. In an exclusive interview to The Telegraph, Union secretary for rural development B.K. Sinha refused to give out names, but insisted that the...

Outlining targets, agenda along the lines of UPA's promises in 2009 polls Agro techniques to improve land fertility, distribution through ‘land bank' Brimming with promises to revamp a wide range of sectors, including industry, agriculture, health and education, as well as bring about holistic development in the weaker sections of the society, the election manifesto that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee released here on Monday for the coming Assembly polls in the...

Expressing concern over rampant corruption in the rank and file of the Centre's United Progressive Alliance Government, Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav today pointed out that one scam after another is coming to light and this does not augur well for the country's future. "Since the regime came to power, it was embroiled in scams such as 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Housing Society. A sincere effort should be...

This book discusses a new poverty agenda for Asia and the role of social policies in economic transformation and reducing poverty. The poverty-reduction agenda is well known. So is the debate over poverty. No one disputes the fact that poverty of income (or expenditure, as countries such as India do not collect household data on income) is an imperfect measure of poverty, as there are non-income dimensions, too. Consequently, we...

The Budget season is in full swing and allocations for various sectors being hotly debated upon both by policy makers and the public at large. What is important to remind ourselves, is that where this will lead this country of over one billion, facing challenges of balancing economic growth with social justice and equity. Food Security has moved from an issue of the poor and hungry and those who advocate their cause...