-The Indian Express Patient shelters must become part of urban infrastructure. Ramkishan Yadav (name changed) hails from Begusarai district in Bihar. He has been in Delhi for the past seven months to complete the treatment of his 11-year-old son, who suffers from a “treatable” form of bone cancer. The father and son live on the footpath in front of the main gate of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in...

-TheWire.in It will greatly bring down the poverty reduction impact of the programme, harm the construction of much-needed rural infrastructure and dramatically diminish the labourers’ bargaining power vis-à-vis the farmers. At the recent fourth governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog, the government announced the formation of a sub-group of chief ministers to propose ways of linking the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with agricultural activities. The group is headed...

-Hindustan Times E Sreedharan says he also doesn’t agree that the Indian Railways has made rapid progress. He cites that apart from bio-toilets, there has been no technical upgradation and accident record has not improved either. Having revolutionised the way urban people commute, Elattuvalappil Sreedharan, 86, a retired civil engineer, has taken up the challenge of laying down standards for the metro rail system. In an interview with Ramesh Babu, the ‘Metro...

-TheWire.in Incorrectly listed as 'Korwas' instead of 'Pahari Korwas' on caste certificates, members of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group continue to face roadblocks to schemes, subsidised healthcare and government jobs. Surguja (Chattisgarh): Sanak Sai, a nine-year-old Pahari Korwa from Chhattisgarh’s Govindpur village, met with an accident on May 28 while riding a bicycle. Suffering from a fractured jaw and a few broken teeth, he was referred to the district hospital for a...

-Livemint.com Odisha is a front-runner in women’s land ownership, much of it owing to government policies from the 1980s. But has ownership led to empowerment? Surrounded by sun-drenched paddy fields interspersed with jackfruit and banana trees, Sanakusupadu is a hamlet in Odisha’s tribal-dominated district of Rayagada. Here, almost every married woman owns land. No matter how small the holding, land documents of the 62 households in this village bear the names of the...