-The Hindu The technical glitches that plague cash transfers in Jharkhand may not have arisen with a simpler system that does not need Internet connectivity Pilot cash transfer projects taken up in Jharkhand for MGNREGA wages have achieved little success due to a variety of logistical, human and technological problems. A year after the launch of these projects, the problems remain unsolved. In Ramgarh district, a majority of the beneficiaries are in Dohakatu...

-The Hindu It’s Russia, China, and Arab states versus E.U., U.S. and Japan; India is silent The December 3-14 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai, could collapse if Russia does not back off from its proposal to bring the Internet under the control of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), thereby subjecting the web to inter-governmental regulation. At the conference’s plenary session, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kazakhstan backed the Russian proposal,...

-The Times of India That Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)'s e-ticketing facility has not kept pace with the rise in demand is evident from the large number of failed transactions. Approximately 35 lakh transactions in June 2012 and almost 37 lakh attempts in May 2012 could not materialize due to the huge rush to book railway tickets online. To top it, there are several cases where a ticket is...

-International Land Coalition   Rome, Italy - Information on land governance is critical factor for enabling developing and emerging economies to establish effective land tenure systems and ultimately ensure secure and equitable access to and control over land. To this end, the International Land Coalition, together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), today announce the integration of information on land from FAO databases accessible through the Land...

The housing and houselisting census data do not paint a rosy picture of India in terms of basic amenities for its households. The data on household amenities and assets, released recently by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, are a stark reminder of the immense disparities that exist in India in terms of basic entitlements such as electricity, sanitation facilities, proper drainage, and clean drinking and...