The Union budget estimates the nominal rate of growth for the Indian economy to be 12.5 per cent during the current fiscal. While it is impossible to figure out the manner in which this number was arrived at, the government has predicted further that the inflation-adjusted real growth rate for the same year will be eight per cent. Simple arithmetic requires that the difference between the nominal and real growth...

In India, where traditionally boys have been preferred over girls, a village in backward Bihar state has been setting an example by planting trees to celebrate the birth of a girl child. In Dharhara village, Bhagalpur district, families plant a minimum of 10 trees whenever a girl child is born. And this practice is paying off. Nikah Kumari, 19, is all set to get married in early June. The would-be...

More than a million people settled along the Kosi river in the Indian state of Bihar live an uncertain and nomadic life in "floating villages" because of frequent flooding. Whenever Babuji Sah walks towards his village, Birbar, he says he feels like an ageing camel struggling to find his new address in the sand-filled desert. That is because Birbar is forced to move location every three to four years. The pathways...

Villagers were paid wages two months late which is a violation of rules  The government’s flagship scheme for the rural poor was meant to provide succour to the unemployed but here, at least, it seems to be the cause of distress. A recent social audit into the workings of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS) in Bihar by the Jan Jagran Abhiyan (JJA) in Araria district revealed serious problems...

After taking the historic step of putting details of their assets and liabilities on the Supreme Court’s official website, some of the judges had to scurry for cover in the face of looming threat from cyber criminals and had to change their bank account numbers. Speaking at a national consultative meeting on launching of cyber law enforcement programme on Sunday, Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said, "We had put on...