Services and goods associated with information and communications technologies (ICTs) are creating opportunities for the poor, but those sources of income are unevenly distributed and not always sustainable, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said today in a new report. In Kenya, for example, there are now more than 18,000 agents for the M-PESA mobile telephone-based money transfer service, and Bangladesh has some 350,000 “village phone ladies,” UNCTAD...

In an attempt to break the deadlock over the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the accompanying Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has invited Trinamool Congress chief and railway minister Mamata Banerjee for talks on October 25. Ms Banerjee, who has strong reservations over the twin pieces of legislation, is, as per Trinamool Congress sources, unlikely to relent. Ms Banerjee’s stand is that the state should have absolutely no...

Nikhil Dey, convener of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, has been in the forefront of the RTI movement. He speaks to  Bharat Dogra  about the achievements of the RTI and the challenges ahead: How do you assess the overall impact of the RTI? Sceptics say corruption is increasing more than even before. What I can assure them is corruption would have been much higher without the RTI. In schemes...

Indefinite Mazdoor Satyagraha has been started at the Statue Circle in Jaipur against the irregularities in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) programmes in the state. The NGO Rozgar Evum Suchna ke Adhikar ka Abhiyan (RA Abhiyan) oganized a Mazdoor Haq Yatra from September 15, 2010 - October 1, 2010 to fulfill the demands of workers. The agitation was launched following irregularities in NREGA schemes in the state. The NGO RA Abhiyan...

Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister and Congress leader Gegong Apang was granted bail by Gauhati High Court today in connection with the Rs 1000 crore Public Distribution System Scam. Apang was arrested by the Special Investigation Cell (SIC) of Arunachal Pradesh Police on August 24 last for his alleged involvement in the scandal that took place while he was the chief minister of the frontier hill state in the North East. A...