-The Telegraph C. Rangarajan today defended his calculation that three out of 10 in India are poor, saying the poverty numbers provided by him were not conservative estimates and the methodology was on a par with global standards. The expert group headed by Rangarajan dismissed the Suresh Tendulkar committee's methodology and estimated that the number of poor in India was much higher in 2011-12 at 29.5 per cent of the population. The BJP-led...
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Poverty, child, maternal deaths high in India: UN report
-PTI India had the highest number of under-five deaths in the world in 2012 India continues to battle poverty, child and maternal deaths, according to a United Nations report on the Millennium development Goals that said while several key global targets have been met, more sustained effort is needed to cover disparities by the 2015 deadline. The ‘Millennium development Goals Report 2014′, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in United Nations Monday said...
More »Rural sanitation needs behaviour change
Two political leaders from rival camps, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Rural development Minister Jairam Ramesh, have brought the spotlight on rural sanitation and have rooted for defecation-free India by investing in toilet construction on war footing. But a recent study by a group of eminent development economists led by Prof. Dean Spears-a visiting economist at the Delhi School of Economics - has concluded that when it comes to...
More »MGNREGS: getting implementation right -Yamini Aiyar
-Live Mint The focus on implementation constraints is welcome; weak implementation has long been the Achilles heel of MGNREGS The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) faces an uncertain future. Statements from the government suggest that the scheme is set for a major revamp with infrastructure creation as its core objective. There are also rumours of a possible scaledown to backward regions. For the moment, however, the only concrete proposal...
More »More rice from less water -Rita Sharma
-The Hindu With water becoming an important cost, and with climate change and soil degradation, the System of Rice Intensification offers disadvantaged farming households better opportunities A truant monsoon is in the offing, with El Niño weather patterns expected to bring about drier conditions. India has the world's largest area devoted to rice, a very water-intensive crop. This is a good time for giving impetus to "more crop per drop" practices, now...
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