-The Times of India RAJKOT: Only one farmer committed suicide in Gujarat because of crop failure between 2003 and 2012! This is what the Gujarat government wants people to believe despite the furore over farmer suicides in the state. This came out in the form of a letter from Union agriculture ministry to RTI activist Bharatsinh Zala on the direction from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Zala had sought Prime Minister Manmohan...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has brought in a fresh wave of hope, but it is too early to assess its performance, observed social activist Aruna Roy. "AAP's unique and new strategies have led to their electoral success but water, power and corruption are not the only issues. They need to lay out a broader framework and take a stand on various other issues, especially in rural parts...

In its latest report, the Statistical Year Book, India 2014 conveys that India is clearly on track to attain the MDG-2 (achieve universal primary education) and MDG-8 (develop a global partnership for development). However, the results are either mixed or poor in terms of India's performance in achieving the rest of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The chart below provides the MDG scenario from a bird's eye view.   The new...

-Outlook Raipur (Chhattisgarh): Slow pace of development work resulting in blockage of over Rs 8 crore and alleged irregularities in implementation of MGNREGA through payment of excess wages to labourers have been noticed in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district. As against 865 works sanctioned under 13th Finance Commission, only 391 works were completed and against allotment of Rs 16.20 crore, expenditure of only Rs 7.97 crore was made and Rs 8.23 crore was blocked,...

-Down to Earth Thousands of people working under NREGS bring a 38 km stream back from the dead in Uttar Pradesh Thirty nine-year-old Ram Ishwar gave up farming to pull a rickshaw outside the railway station in Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur town. He says scarcity of water and a resultant increase in the cost of irrigation rendered farming unprofitable. Wheat production from his 0.4 hectare (ha) farmland shrank from one tonne to half...