-The Business Standard But urban homelessness has increased As part of the 2011 census operations the government took a count of homeless people across the country on the night of February 28, 2011. The numbers of India's homeless population emerging from that survey were made public a few days ago. Although a single-day exercise has many advantages, some people have also contested it - at least one non-governmental organisation working in the...

-PTI Allaying fears of a spurt in public expenditure ahead of Lok Sabha polls, finance minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said government will not compromise on fiscal discipline, notwithstanding the defeat of Congress in four states, including Delhi and Rajasthan. Inaugurating the Delhi Economic Conclave, Chidambaram blamed the states for "inaction" to check hoarding and said the incumbent government pays a price for high inflation. "The agenda, therefore, will be obvious. At the...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: An NGO set up in response to the 2002 carnage in Gujarat has decided to carry out awareness programmes across the country in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to highlight the potential pitfalls of Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister. "A dream of development is being shown to the people of India.... But that is not the reality. There is another side to the story of Gujarat,...

-The United Nations Sustainable cities are an aspiration as the number of slum dwellers continues to rise and the rate of urbanization skyrockets, a senior United Nations official today said, ahead of an upcoming UN forum that will focus on creating cities and towns more economically, socially and politically accessible. "One of the main aspects in urbanization is to diminish the level of inequality because it presents a new set of social...

-The Business Standard India has emerged as a "voice" in climate change and trade negotiations. The already industrialised countries say that India is obstinate, strident and unnecessarily obstructionist in crucial global debates. The problem is not that India is loud - this it needs to be. The fact is that, while ecological and economic globalisation are interlinked and irrevocable, there is a fundamental weakness in the overall rules that govern these...