The media imagery of a “liberated” Red corridor extending from Andhra Pradesh, cutting across the heart of India, all the way to Nepal is the most vivid representation of the threat that Maoists pose to our country. The Prime Minister describes the Maoists as India's most serious internal security challenge and the Home Minister rates it as a “problem graver than terrorism.” In search of an effective response, official committees have,...

-Live Mint   As United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi prepares to intervene next week in the great national debate about who is poor, she might want to visit north-eastern Mumbai to see how the poorest are not even classified as such and how a giant government scheme to save their children from malnutrition is failing. The nauseating stench from a mountain of garbage greets a visitor to Rafi Nagar at the base...

A draft Bill aimed at redressing complaints against junior government officials is likely to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament to check graft at the lowest level, where most citizens interact with the administration. The proposed Public Services Grievance Redressal Bill will be available to the public for comments and feedback before it’s introduced in Parliament, Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh said. The proposed law comes at a time when...

-Live Mint   The poor remain poor because they lack resources. And the formal finance sector does not want to lend them because they are too poor, costs are high and they hardly have anything to offer as collateral. That is, they are trapped in the vicious circle of poverty. This was so until the arrival of microfinance—successfully demonstrated by the Bangladesh model that the poor are “good” borrowers. It was held...

Admitting that the growth of Naxalism was as much because of failure of the Union Government as for a variety of other reasons, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has underlined the need for a renewed sense of urgency to address problems afflicting the masses through a stratagem hinged on synergy of security forces and implementing agencies. Delivering the annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture here on “Tirupati to Pashupati: Some reflections...