-The United Nations   Global malaria deaths have dropped by about 38 per cent over the past decade, saving the lives of more than one million people, mostly children, through the efforts of a United Nations-LED global partnership that put emphasis on prevention and treatment, particularly the use of insecticide-treated nets, according to a report unveiLED today. Some 43 countries, 11 of them in Africa, have seen malaria cases or deaths drop by...

With the National Integration Council discussing the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill drafted by the National Advisory Council (NAC), the consensus against the legislation has been consolidated. Till then, the charge had been LED primarily by the archetypal minority bashers, the constituents of the Sangh Parivar, who refused to acknowLEDge the uncomfortable truth about communal and targeted violence — that it is minorities and Dalits who bear the...

The Planning Commission has approved irrigation projects worth an estimated Rs.2 trillion over the past year-and-a-half to bolster India’s food security, but analysts say most of the money will not be utilized because of corruption and poor execution. A total 141 projects costing Rs.1.3 trillion were cleared in 2010 alone, according to an internal Plan panel paper on investment clearance of flood control, major and medium irrigation projects and renovation and...

The ministry of rural development is mulling over changes in the implementation guidelines of the country’s largest rural employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The ministry has constituted a committee to be chaired by member Planning Commission Mihir Shah that will look into issues such as ensuring legal compensation for not providing work on demand, reducing distress migration from rural areas, cutting down on delays...

Arvind Kejriwal is part of the brains trust behind the Anna Hazare movement, which has the potential to further undermine the Delhi order. The engineer-turned-civil servant-turned-RTI activist is now a mass campaigner for the Jan Lokpal bill and plans to expand the movement. He spoke to Saba Naqvi about his ideological convictions, faith in “the people”, dealings with the Aruna Roy-LED National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and...