A number of questions on the Unique Identification (UID) project continue to remain unanswered while the project itself is necessitated by the government's policy shift to play an indirect rather than direct role in providing services, a panel of researchers told journalists on the sidelines of a public talk on the subject at St. Xavier's College here on Saturday. Usha Ramanathan, researcher on jurisprudence, poverty and rights, said it was not...

8 lakh girls, from 11 to 18 years, will benefit from scheme Rajasthan Women and Child Development Minister Bina Kak launched the “Sabala Yojana” here on Monday for empowerment of out-of-school adolescent girls through supplementary nutrition and life skills training at anganwadi centres, ensuring their mental and physical growth, and enabling them to become self-sufficient. Addressing the inaugural function at Jawahar Kala Kendra here, Ms. Kak said about eight lakh girls in...

A case of irregularity in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment Guarantee Scheme has been detected in Karanjakala block of Jaunpur district. Joint director (industry) Indramohan Dubey, in his inspection report submitted to divisional commissioner Ajay Kumar Upadhyaya, mentioned that job cards of workers were not made in Vibi gram sabha of Karanjakala block. Locals told him that they had given applications for this purpose but they were not given job...

Controversies surrounding the two real estate projects, the Adarsh Society building in Mumbai and the Lavasa city near Pune, bring to the fore the huge costs of poor enforcement of town planning rules and inept administration of urban development. In the case of Adarsh housing, a 31-storeyed apartment building raised in the Backbay reclamation area and meant for Kargil heroes, the Maharashtra government not only turned a blind eye to...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has decided to take its battle with the government on the now-controversial issue of food security into the public domain. Eight days after the Rangarajan panel, appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, rejected its recommendations on food security, the NAC has decided to dig in its heels, reflecting, council sources said, “Ms. Gandhi's determination to go ahead.” Indeed, on Friday, the NAC, at its ninth...