In an upstairs classroom at a residential school in Mal, near Lucknow, the girls are revising for their exams. As the light starts to fade at the glassless windows, each girl takes a brightly coloured plastic lamp and carries it to her space on the floor. There is no electricity, but the lamps are solar powered. They have been donated jointly by Swedish company Ikea and the United Nations Children’s...

Faced with acute shortage in supply of foodgrain in the public distribution system (PDS), all fair price shop owners in the state have decided to down their shutters from September 20 for an indefinite period. Three year ago, ration shops were gutted and many dealers had to go underground after food riots due to shortage. Surprisingly, minister of food & supplies Paresh Adhikari appeared to be unaware of the situation. “We...

When the Reddy brothers, accused of illegal mining, demonstrate their grip over a state government, most people will rightly bemoan the role that corruption plays in public life. However, vital as it is to tackle the issue, it is also important to view it in perspective. Most people would not have realised, for instance, that India has been improving on at least one corruption score. Transparency International, the Berlin-based body,...

The 1,600 families in Haryana’s Panchkula district which line up at fair price shops for foodgrains and Kerosene can do away with their prized ration cards, pieces of paper that entitle the poor to subsidized food and fuel. Beginning Tuesday, while they still have to queue up, these families will receive their rations after a biometric identification using smart cards. That’s a small beginning for an ambitious Rs138 crore Centrally funded project...

For LPG and Kerosene subsidy, government has to make up from petrol, says Montek Singh Ahluwalia he government should use its money on building schools and hospitals than subsidising oil companies, which were making huge profits because of grant, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said. “The profits shown by the oil companies are largely due to subsidies. We are not supposed to be subsidising the oil companies ... we...