-The Hindustan Times   A day after he quit Team Anna, activist Rajendra Singh accused Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal of autocratic behaviour and expressed unhappiness over politicisation of the India Against Corruption campaign.  In an exclusive interview to HT, Singh said, "I have left the core team. But I will continue to campaign against corruption in various spheres of life."  Singh, a Magsaysay award winner for his work on water conservation in Rajasthan,...

Centre delinks access to welfare schemes from poverty line NUMBER of people who can benefit from government’s welfare programmes is going to swell. Currently, the Central government caps the entitlements under most welfare programmes to those below the poverty line, which is as low as Rs 12/day/person for rural areas and Rs 18/day/person for urban areas. State governments have been opposing this mechanism. In future, the ongoing socio-economic and caste census...

This Education Day (November 11), the principal of each elementary school in India will receive VVIP mail -- a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Contained therein will be a highly personalised message of the PM for the children of the country, who have long been guaranteed the Right to Education (RTE) by law, but who may not still know of it. The letter, to be posted to 13 lakh principals of...

Only in India does redistribution, which keeps the poor and marginalised out of the mainstream of the economy, pass for inclusive growth. In much of the rest of the world, inclusive growth would mean giving the poor and marginalised a direct stake in the economy with fast-growing industries and services absorbing them into gainful employment and, thus, making them true participants and partners in the growth process.  But in India, we...

The year 2010 endured 950 natural disasters, 90 percent of which were weather-related and cost the global community well over 130 billion dollars. From wildfires in Brazil to record rainfall in the United States to the severe drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, it has become clear to many that quick and radical decisions need to be made about the world's future.  One of the biggest advocates of this position...