-Livemint.com Nandan Nilekani, one of the brains behind the Unified Payments Interface, on the near-term challenges of going cashless While the government’s decision to scrap Rs500 and Rs1,000 bank notes has been met with resistance from some quarters and been called too abrupt, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani backed it, saying it was needed to speed up the move to a cashless economy. “There is no question that this is a very bold...
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The overrated urban spinoff -Raghav Gaiha
-The Indian Express Agriculture’s contribution to poverty reduction is five times more than that of metropolitan centres Speaking at the third BRICS Urbanisation Forum in Visakhapatnam on September 14, Deputy Chairman of the Niti Ayog, Arvind Panagariya, announced that “Without cities we can’t grow rapidly”. He added, “urbanisation plays an important role in poverty alleviation”. Both claims are exaggerated and somewhat misleading. A recent report prepared for the UN points out that, over...
More »Air pollution behind 10% under-5 years deaths: Unicef report
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A report by the United Nations Children's agency, Unicef, released on Monday has confirmed the worst fears of people living in polluted areas — that bad air is contributing to death of many children even before they celebrate their fifth birthday. Outdoor and indoor pollution, the agency noted, are directly linked to respiratory diseases that account for almost one in 10 under-five deaths, making air pollution...
More »Children in north India breathing toxic air, reveals UNICEF report
-AP NEW DELHI: As India wakes up on Monday to smoke-filled skies from a weekend of festival fireworks, New Delhi's worst season for air pollution begins, with dire consequences. A new report from UNICEF says most of the 2 billion children in the world who are breathing toxic air live in north India and neighbouring countries, risking serious health effects, including damage to their lungs, brains and other organs. Of that global...
More »Massive Slump in MNREGA Work After Centre's Unofficial Instructions -Nitin Sethi
-TheWire.in The Centre’s off-record instructions through WhatsApp and a squeeze on funds made the rural work programme crash after a roaring first half of the year. This is second of a two-part series. Read part one here. The WhatsApp messages from the central rural development ministry to states had a chilling effect on the work given under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) after the roaring demand growth in the...
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