-The New York Times Blog On March 23, when students and prominent Indians meet at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for the India Economic Forum, one person will be conspicuous by his absence: Narendra Modi. The chief minister of Gujarat was invited to join the conference via Skype to discuss Gujarat’s development model, but student organizers of the annual conference withdrew their invitation on Sunday after a few University...
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A rough guide to India’s Food Security Bill
Introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011, the UPA government’s Food Security Bill is finally going to be discussed in the current (Budget) Session of Parliament. The proposed legislation is now slated to see many additional amendments from the government, following criticism from the States, NGOs and diverse stake-holders working on access to food and child health. Attempt here is to summarise in a Q & A format the...
More »Villagers turn water warriors, tackle drought with rainwater harvesting -Madhavi Rajadhyaksha
-The Times of India HIWARE BAZAR: For those who wonder if Maharashtra can tide over the current drought situation, HiwareBazar, with its 'yes we can' spirit, is the answer. Notwithstanding the fact that Ahmednagar is facing its worst drought since Independence, HiwareBazar in the same district has no water scarcity. It's not that Nature favoured Hiware Bazar with a special bounty. In fact, the village had received a normal rainfall of 199...
More »In Chhattisgarh, tribal women retract rape charges -Suvojit Bagchi
-The Hindu Dantewada (Chhattisgarh): Of the six tribal women of Shamsetti village in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh who in 2009 gave statements in court that they had been gang-raped by Salwa Judum functionaries, three have now withdrawn their charges. Three key witnesses — family members of the women — have also retracted their statements. Some lawyers in Dantewada familiar with the case say that the women are withdrawing due to “severe pressure”...
More »Eligible farmers left out of loan waiver plan: CAG
-The Hindustan Times The CAG has found several shortcomings in the implementation of the first UPA government’s Rs. 52,500-crore farm loan waiver scheme — while thousands of ineligible farmers got the benefit, many eligible applicants were left out. The CAG report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, disclosed that it had audited 80,299 beneficiaries across 25 states, which was less than 1% of the total 34.5 million recipients. The scheme had two components —...
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