-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation) As per the poverty estimates released by the Planning Commission, the percentage of population below poverty line in urban areas has declined from 25.5% in 2004-05 to 13.7% in 2011-12. This was stated by Dr. (Ms.) Girija Vyas, Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. Dr Vyas stated that the...

-The Business Standard The economic logic - and political reasons - behind the giant shift of spending power to the states Interim Budgets are not supposed to do this. This is precisely what they are not supposed to do. They are not supposed to lay out a policy change so vast it disempowers the next central government. But that's what P Chidambaram has done - and it appears to have been...

-DNA The government's lack of focus on agriculture shows its lopsided priorities. In the coming months, about 1.5 crore farmers who quit agriculture in the past seven years, are likely to trudge back into the villages. In normal circumstances such a massive reverse migration - from the cities back to the villages - would have been a sign of inclusive growth. But economists are taking this U-turn as a sign of...

-Oryza.com "Golden Rice will certainly be accepted one day. We are only trying to put pressure so it will be accepted earlier than later. Each second of the day a child dies unnecessarily." These are the words of Dr. Patrick Moore, Canadian ecologist and former director of Greenpeace, who is leading a campaign to make Golden Rice acceptable in the EU and across the world. What's surprising about Dr. Moore's words...

-PTI NEW DELHI: With proceedings in parliament remaining disrupted, the government was unable to introduce the street vendors bill - a pet legislation of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi - in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when opposition MPs objected to introducing bills in the din. The upper house, which witnessed repeated adjournments, met at 2pm still amid din when Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Girija Vyas sought the permission of...