The World Bank has approved $150 million in loan for India to accelerate implementation of its National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), which is aimed at transforming the service delivery system across the country. While this World Bank loan will not target specific services per se, it will initiate policy and institutional actions that will impact all the services. The loan will support NeGP - approved in May 2006 as a national programme -...
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CAG raps Bihar for poor financial reporting, slack control system by Shoumojit Banerjee
Massive backlog in submission of Detailed Contingent Bills 1,021 cases of misappropriation, defalcation, theft amounting to Rs. 407.97 crore as of March 2010 Large number of unfurnished utilisation certificates for grants to the tune of Rs.4,527.77 crore The pendency of Detailed Contingent (DC) Bills, once a subject of a free-for-all in the Bihar Assembly last year, has popped up again in the Comptroller and Auditor-General's report tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. The audit...
More »Govt plans Rs 1 lakh/day fine for missing energy saving target
The Power Ministry plans to impose huge penalties of over Rs 1 lakh per day on industries that fail to achieve energy efficiency targets under the three-year Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) programme starting April 1. PAT, which aims to increase industrial energy efficiency, is expected to bring down energy consumption by 5 per cent, amounting to an avoided capacity of over 5,600 MW over the three-year period. There would be strict...
More »Stricter norms to decide centre's NREGA allocation to states by Devika Banerji
State governments will have to abide by stricter rules to receive money from the centre for the rural employment scheme in the next financial year 2011-12. The centrally sponsored Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( MGNREGA )) has been one of the biggest drivers of rural consumption in the country. Stricter measures of fund release might lead to lower transfer to states at a time when high interest rates are...
More »Comics bring about social change in India Unshining by Kim Arora
The children of Khatima village couldn't take it anymore. The headmaster in their government school had been turning up drunk for over five years. That is, when he turned up at all. Last year, they finally took matters into their own hands. Activist Devendra Ojha had held a cartooning workshop with them. The comics produced by the children were photocopied and pasted all over the village: behind rickshaws, near the...
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