The UPA-II has used the Budget to again play politics with hunger. But it has paid no heed to the ticking time bomb of growing social tensions as 58 million Indians living off agriculture slide deeper into poverty. The Economic Survey says more than half the population is dependent on a sector whose share in the economy is shrinking. The urban-rural income divide is therefore steadily widening, a tinder box that...

The common man, whose concerns were at the heart of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s two successful election campaigns, doesn’t seem to be the focus of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s budget. Experts and political analysts say the aam admi doesn’t appear to be the dominant concern anymore, prompting speculation about Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi’s role. She has thus far been setting the UPA’s social agenda through the National Advisory Council...

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ushered in a regime of cash transfers for the payment of subsidies for food, fertilizers and kerosene, along with social welfare payments, by accepting the recommendations of a panel headed by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The recommendations, submitted last month, had prepared a blueprint for transferring cash directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries by linking these to their unique...

-PTI A demand was raised in Rajya Sabha today that the Government should put in place a strong surveillance network to monitor inflow of foreign funds to NGOs besides creating a data base in the interest of national security.  "Government should establish a data base of NGOs to whom foreign contribution is increasing day by day. There are reports that funds are being utilised to fuel unrest in government projects," B S...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has released draft recommendations for a social security package for the country’s unorganized sector, which envisages providing life, disability and health cover, maternity benefits and old-age pension to workers. NAC, in a draft released on 7 March, suggested that the different welfare schemes being run by the ministries of women and child development, health and family welfare, finance and labour and employment should be...