Among the many reasons cited for India to proceed ahead with the Unique Identification (UID) project -that it will facilitate delivery of basic services, that it will plug leakages in public expenditure and that it will speed up achievement of targets in social sector schemes -   the most specious is perhaps the claim that it will help India reach her public health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite impressive economic growth in...

Trade unions staged a protest today in Delhi against the sharp rise in prices and a Prime Minister who they claimed was “indifferent” towards working class interests. The unions, including the Congress-backed INTUC, broke convention by handing a memorandum stating their demands to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar rather than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Such demands are usually first brought before the government. “The Prime Minister has done nothing about our demands. It...

After wrangling with the coal ministry over green concerns, the environment ministry has cleared eight more CIL projects that have been stalled for about a year. The development comes close on the heels of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh softening his stance on "no go" status for coal blocks falling in environmentally sensitive areas during the meeting of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Coal last week, where he assured that...

President Pratibha Patil today reaffirmed the government’s resolve “to maintain the momentum for reforms on a wide front”, prompting policymakers to outline the possible economic agenda ahead of the budget just a week away. Top officials offered their take on the phrase, mentioned in Patil’s speech to Parliament at the start of the budget session. According to the them, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee are looking to...

Unlike the educated elite who go Westwards, attracted by better opportunities and a luxurious lifestyle, those who land up in West Asia as waged labourers have a much harder time: Practically no rights, hostile working environments and absolutely no support systems. Why is it that the violation of their basic rights doesn't figure at all in the national imagination? About the same time that India aired “absolute displeasure and concern” over...