The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed its two Commissioners N.C. Saxena and Harsh Mander and the Collector of Dantewada to visit the villages of Tadmetla, Morapalli and Timapuram in Chhattisgarh, where food scarcity and hunger deaths were reported, and to give a report to the court. A Bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma gave this direction during the course of hearing of a petition filed by the People's...

Half the world’s 48 least developed countries (LDCs) can “graduate” out of their impoverished status within 10 years if they benefit from better targeted development aid, duty- and quota-free access for exports and doubled farm productivity and school enrolment, according to a United Nations report released today. This is considered a bold objective, given that altogether there have been 51 LDCs since the category was created by the UN in 1970,...

India finds itself bracketed with countries like Philippines and Cambodia, rated as the fourth most corrupt nation among 16 countries of the ASIa Pacific region surveyed by leading Hong Kong-based business consultancy firm PERC. The Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd (PERC) rated India at 8.67 on a scale of zero to 10 with the high end being the worst case of corruption scenario and ahead of the Philippines (8.9 points),...

Social activist Anna Hazare said here on Monday that though the Prime Minister had a good character, the reason he failed to take action against the corrupt was because of ‘remote control'. “It is only because of the ‘remote control' that he cannot do anything. Otherwise he is such a good man,” Mr Hazare said during a press conference organised by ‘India Against Corruption' to gather support for the ‘Jan...

Rising from ashes, Bihar is India's new phoenix. Recently it impressed the World Bank resulting in an aid worth several hundred crores for development of the state. And it has a number of lessons for neighbouring UP. In 2002-03, when census data was notified, UP fared better than Bihar. But, now the tortoise (read Bihar) has metamorphosed to hare, leaving UP behind. Consider figures from the National Rural Health Mission. Number...