-The Week Shambhu Kumar, 8, quite liked his job as a domestic help in a small town in Assam. He had to mind two children nearly his age, keep an eye on the ducks and be available for chores all day. It wasn't too hard, and he was well fed, too, though he missed his grandmother, a tea garden labourer. One day, some women from the state education department came to the...

-Deccan Chronicle Raghu Kanchustambham graduated from IIT-Guwahati in 2000 with the intention of making the best use of his world-class education. Little did he know that a chance accident was going to point him in an opposite direction, one that was destined to bring this Hyderabadi worldwide acclaim. Currently, he is preparing to fly to Oslo, Norway, in October to participate in the two-day Digital Winners conference. Raghu will compete in ‘The...

-Livemint The proposed changes in MNREGA will undermine the very reason for which the Act was passed The present central government of India rode high into the office, promising development with good governance. This certainly was a welcome signal to organizations like ours working at grassroots who experience, day after day, that good-intentioned social policies get stuck in ill-designed programmes. There is a huge governance deficit in the delivery of social development...

-Livemint There are many problems with MGNREGA but little evidence that poor citizens will be better off without it Recent pronouncements of the new government make it clear that it is seeking to alter the essential character of the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Among these prescriptions are that 60% of the works in each district should be devoted to agriculture and that a greater share of the cost...

-The Business Standard The cracker industry in Sivakasi is estimated to be worth about Rs 3,500 cr B Bagyalakshmi, S Mahalakshmi and K Sankaralingam have two things in common. All used to work in firecracker and matchbox making units at Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. However, they rebuilt their lives after studying at the National Child Labour Project (NCLP)'s special training centres, run with the financial assistance from Central and state governments. While...