The Centre wants all `kutcha' houses to be replaced by durable, disaster-resistant structures by 2016-17. It forms the big expression of intent in the first-of-its-kind `rural housing and habitat policy' that UPA may announce soon. The government wants to engage NGOs in rural housing, a sector the voluntary organisations have shunned till now. The government feels the rural populace will benefit from NGOs in the field of "technology dissemination" and...
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Rust in the bread basket
A crop-killing fungus is spreading out of Africa towards the world’s great wheat-growing areas IT IS sometimes called the “polio of agriculture”: a terrifying but almost forgotten disease. Wheat rust is not just back after a 50-year absence, but spreading in new and scary forms. In some ways it is worse than child-crippling polio, still lingering in parts of Nigeria. Wheat rust has spread silently and speedily by 5,000 miles in...
More »Maoists on mind, govt mulls mining law by Nishit Dholabhai
The government is thinking of bringing in a law that would allow the National Investigation Agency to probe cases of illegal mining. The proposal for arming the NIA with this power had come from the Prime Minister’s Office. Sources said the objective was to enable the Centre to break the “mining mafia”. If passed, the proposed legislation will also enable the government to scrap leases of companies engaged in illegal operations, like...
More »A profitable education by Sadhna Saxena
While India’s new Right to Education Act seeks to bring free and compulsory education for all children, it seems to short-change them through an unrealistic vision of the private sector’s involvement. In August 2009, the Right to Education Act was passed in the Indian Parliament with no debate, by the fewer than 60 members who happened to be attending the session that day. Not that the Act was an open-and-shut...
More »World Bank loan to boost Indian microfinance
The government on Tuesday approved a a proposal to draw a loan of $100 million (about Rs 450 crore) from the World Bank to promote microfinance in the country. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared the proposal for on-lending to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi), which -- in turn -- would disburse the funds to the microfinance sector. “The fund will be used to promote responsible and...
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