Seeks public opinion on list put up on Rural Development Ministry website  Ministry invited applications for setting up a panel of 100 eminent citizens Only five women on the list; people from all States not represented The Rural Development Ministry has prepared its first provisional list of 65 eminent citizens for monitoring the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). It put the names on the website, seeking public...

The state has received Rs 5,942 crore, or 19% of the total Rs 31,149 crore released by New Delhi this financial year, it is followed by UP, allocated Rs 4,726 crore, or 15% and Andhra Pradesh, with Rs 3,781 crore, or 12% Rajasthan remains the top beneficiary of funds released by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for its flagship income generation scheme. The state has received Rs 5,942 crore, or 19%...

YELLING dementedly, seven lawmakers mobbed the chairman of the Indian parliament’s upper house on March 8th and tore at the document, containing the women’s reservation bill, he was reading from. Yet the bill passed the next day, with the two-thirds majority needed to change India’s constitution. With broad political support, including from the Congress party that leads India’s coalition government and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the bill...

The Supreme Court has ruled that fast-track courts, set up to ease the load of pending cases in subordinate courts, will continue to function in all states till further orders. Most of these courts were created under a centrally funded scheme on April 1, 2001, and were expected to lapse within five years. But they have since been given repeated extensions, the last one valid till March 31, 2010. “The scheme will...

Beijing had to take some harsh steps to reduce pollution ahead of last year's Olympic Games in the city. As the countdown for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi begins, here's some bad news. Delhi and its surroundings have some of the worst polluting zones in the country, according to a list of India's severely polluted industrial clusters released by the environment ministry on Thursday. Ghaziabad takes the third rank in...