MPLADS funds will only be used for the material component of the projects Federal lawmakers can now use their discretionary funds to finance work taken up under the government’s flagship jobs scheme, a move aimed at creating more lasting community assets in the villages. The government has decided to converge the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). But MPLADS funds...

After right to education and information, citizens will soon get right to clean drinking water and sanitation. In a new draft National Water Policy, the water resources ministry has suggested that the access to safe drinking water and sanitation be regarded as a right. Around one-third of the Indians don't have access to clean drinking water and more than half of the country's population to clean sanitation. Only 42.2% people in Jharkhand and...

-The Business Standard   The same week that Wikipedia and several other highly trafficked websites went dark to protest legislation in the United States that would severely curtail their operations, the Delhi High Court was hearing an attempt by the Indian government to take on 21 social networking sites (owned by 10 overseas companies) for “promoting enmity between classes, causing prejudice to national integration and insulting religion or religious belief of any...

The Bengal government had introduced a remote-area incentive system that rewarded doctors working in Calcutta for all practical purposes but not in some places that could be reached only by crossing rivers. Calcutta High Court today stayed the order, which was issued by the Mamata Banerjee government last year but did not draw much attention beyond medical circles. The government order denied several doctors who had served in villages the advantages due...

The government has proposed that the offence of rape be made "gender neutral" by amending the law so that sexual assault on men can also be proceeded against under the same statute. It also plans to make specific laws on stalking and acid attacks on women. The change in the rape law is being drafted by the ministry of women and child development (WCD) as part of the criminal law (amendment)...