-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India put its innovations on display at the Social Good Summit on September 21 and 22 during which the United Nations General Assembly has been in session. Hosted at IIT Delhi on Sunday, the first India Social Good Summit 2014, webcast live for thousands of students, had experts and students came come together to interact on one question: What type of world do we want...

-UNDP India New Delhi: "Social media is changing the way we live and relate to each other" said noted filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. The challenge in his view, was "how to ensure those ideas are positive and for the good?" Mr. Kapur was speaking at the Social Good Summit 2014, ‘Technology for Social Good' organized by the United Nations Development Programme in India. Talking of his vision for the world in 2030,...

-Economic and Political Weekly Despite economic growth, government latrine construction, and increasing recognition among policymakers that open defecation constitutes a health and human capital crisis, it remains stubbornly widespread in rural India. We present evidence from new survey data collected in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Many survey respondents' behaviour reveals a preference for open defecation: over 40% of households with a working latrine have at least one...

-The Hindu In addition to adequate provision of funds for cleaning, Sanitation training and maintenance of toilets in schools, the issue of fixing accountability must also be addressed The revival of the issue of toilets in schools has brought to the fore a discussion that has for long existed among educationists, with varying positions occupying centre stage at different times. A couple of decades ago, when the deplorable state of education began...

In the midst of irregular monsoons affecting agriculture, a new report shows stagnation in the state of irrigation infrastructure. The recent report entitled Infrastructure Statistics 2014 (Third Issue) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has provided information that despite the rise in expenditure on irrigation infrastructure, there has been no substantial improvement in the gross irrigation potential utilized*. Athough expenditure on irrigation has increased from Rs. 36561.64 crores...