The Gujarat High Court has ordered the state government to submit the details of schemes, if any, to identify Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Mahila Mandals that can buy grains and prepare food for children and pregnant mothers attending the 48,000 aanganwadi centres in the state. The order follows a suo-motu petition that questioned the implementation of several Central schemes for the poor, including why the state government had roped in a...

Women have rarely held posts of political authority in Kerala. There are, though, processes at play that could alter some things, a sense that big changes are under way. They will account for over 50 per cent of all 21, 682 wards in the 1,209 local bodies going to the polls. A single issue dogs all candidates in the local polls in Guruvayoor municipality of Kerala's Thrissur district. Any of the...

In an unprecedented United Nations-supported initiative, people who cannot see and those who have other forms of visual disability will have access to published works through publisher intermediaries who will create accessible formats of publications and share them with specialized libraries. The new arrangement was announced today at the of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) meeting in the Indian capital, New Delhi. It is estimated that only five percent of...

The sixth meeting of the National Advisory Council, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Saturday finalised its recommendations to address the problems of hunger and malnutrition in the country. Some of the important recommendations: - Legal entitlements to subsidised foodgrains should be extended to 90 percent rural population and 50 percent urban population. - The priority households should have a monthly entitlement of 35 kg at a subsidised price of Re.1 per kg...

Expressing 'deep distress' over the 'shameful practice of manual scavenging' in the country, the National Advisory Council, headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Saturday asked the government to 'fully abolish' it by the end of 2012. It observed that despite the practice of employing scavengers being declared an offence, no one has been punished for it. The issue is seen as 'an issue of sanitation than of issue of human dignity,'...