10-member delegation meets Pratibha to garner support for Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha Passing of the Bill will be a “historic step” ‘Women should get 50 per cent reservation' Demanding passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, a large number of women from across the country took out a rally at Jantar Mantar here on Thursday to demand their “right”. While the rally gathered support for the Bill, a...

An investigation by the Union Ministry of Rural Development based on a report by The Indian Express has confirmed that the Gujarat government has been illegally diverting MNREGA funds for its own departmental works. Ironically, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had himself stated in New Delhi on Saturday that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme had become a ‘den of corruption’ and that he had asked the...

Even as India once more self-declares its “arrival on the world stage” with a symbol for the Indian rupee, a global assessment presents a depressing picture of India’s actual economic performance. In a study whose conclusions were to be expected, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHDI) has revealed that an appropriate index of poverty (and deprivation) finds its incidence in India and elsewhere to be much greater than...

The meeting of the standing committee on the rural development ministry on Wednesday saw members, cutting across party lines, pick loopholes, and complain of large-scale corruption, in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The parliamentary panel, which is headed by former Union minister and BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan, had on the discussion table the UPA government’s flagship rural development programme , and members voiced their...

With the government readying to introduce a Bill in Parliament to modify the powers of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to include public-private partnership (PPP) projects, many project managers are close to gagging. The main reason behind why the public sector has not performed, they argue along with several in government, is the fear of the 3Cs — the CBI, the CVC and the CAG. Since almost...