-Down to Earth Our policy makers should move away from the income criterion for estimating poverty and take cognisance of other indicators Amid mounting criticism and heated debates about the poverty line, a challenge has resurfaced to examine whether there could be a single non-monetary criterion of estimating poverty. A poverty line is a monetary cut-off point below which a person is deemed to be poor. Thus, any attempt to measure poverty...

-The Business Standard Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a letter to the Prime Minister said "the newly introduced proviso leaves the fixation of the issue price to the discretion of the Central Government. Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government today said that the newly introduced proviso leaves in the Food Security Bill for the fixation of the issue price to the discretion of the Central Government would lead to an additional burden...

-The Hindu Acting on Sonia's recommendations, government to bring in key official amendments to Food Security Bill The government has decided to bring in key amendments to the National Food Security Bill, removing provisions for cash transfer and role of contractors and manufacturers in the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). The decision, which came on the recommendation of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, found support from the Opposition. The move comes even as the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India's slum population will surge to 104 million by 2017 - or around 9% of the total projected national population of 1.28 billion that year. This means urban planners will face escalating challenges as these slums will mostly proliferate in sleepy towns and in semi-rural areas, a consequence of an accelerating rural to urban shift across the nation. According to data provided in Parliament, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Made up of eight states and accounting for about 4% of India's population, the northeast region is better known for its separatist movements and incendiary ethnic conflicts. It has 25 Lok Sabha members, 14 of them from Assam, and so, does not draw serious attention from political parties involved in the national sweepstakes. The region receives huge funds from the central government that prop up...