25 per cent funds allocated to national rural employment scheme remain unspent
Poor planning is crippling the government’s flagship employment scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). In most states funds for the scheme could not be utilised in absence of comprehensive plans at the panchayat, block and district levels. MGNREGS, which was introduced in 2006, guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual work.
Implementation of the Forest Rights Act is more political than developmental. Most land titles were given before the polls. With the general election round the corner, the government is again showing interest in the Act
Owning a piece of the planet is overwhelming. For Lange Manjhi, resident of Jurakhaman village in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, it is much more than that. He grew up in the forest village and cultivated the land he inherited from his father. But he had no legal right over it. Rather, he was called an encroacher. And an encroacher has no right over government’s development schemes. He cannot even sell his paddy to government agencies, forget about getting government loan to invest in his farm.
An analysis of Brazil's last three elections suggests that people do vote for parties for such initiatives, but only when these are backed by structural changes to ensure their continuity
In the mid 1980s, the British Antarctic Survey team discovered a hole in the ozone layer. The depletion had started in the 1970s. There were reports of ozone hole over the North Pole as well. The hole meant we were exposed to harmful UV rays with severe health impacts such as malignant and non-malignant skin cancers. Given that the Caucasian population was more vulnerable to the effects of UV radiation, ozone layer depletion assumed priority for Northern countries.
FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES
Since the Right To Education Act came into force on April 1, 2010, India has been witnessing an experiment that involves parents in enforcing a fundamental right-right to elementary education. The devolution experiment rivals the country's Panchayati raj in outreach. After three years, the less-talked-about flagship programme of the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre seems to be the least performing one as well. By March 31 this year, not a single child in the country should have been out of school and parents should have been managing the affairs of neighbourhood schools, scripting a new era in education. Down To Earth reporters travel to four states and analyse if the Central government has managed to achieve its goals for which it is legally responsible
This is unusual for a school in the ravines of Chambal, still dreaded for bandits. A primary school that has 35 students, many of them girls, opens and closes on time. Teachers are regular and children get nutritious mid-day meals, without fail. The school in Himmatpura village in Uttar Pradesh's Jalan district is a rare example of communities taking charge of education.
With an eye on the 2014 general election, the UPA government is expanding its ambitious Direct Benefit Transfer programme that promises welfare as cash in bank accounts. But without any groundwork it is only creating more trouble for beneficiaries
Come July 1, the UPA government will roll out the second phase of its ambitious programme, Direct Benefit Transfer or DBT. The programme aims to transfer welfare benefits, such as scholarship, pension and subsidies, directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. When the government kicked off the first phase in 43 districts in January this year, it hyped DBT?as a "game changer" in the way it provides benefits to the people.
The most controversial aspect of the food security law is the restructuring of the public distribution system to cover an unprecedented 67 per cent of the population, most of them in the poorer states. LATHA JISHNU, JYOTIKA SOOD and SUCHITRA M explain why there are winners and losers in the new dispensation and how states with better PDS will have to find huge resources to keep their numbers intact
First, the mind-blowing figure: 813,373,000 or 813 million to round it off. That is two-thirds of this populous country and the number of people who will be covered by the National Food Security Act once the government pushes it through Rajya Sabha after its victory in Lok Sabha on August 26.
States get freedom to decide whether land under multi-crop is to be acquired
The Lok Sabha on Thursday night passed the new land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement Bill which replaces a nearly 120 years old law that governs land acquisition for "public purpose". Many of the contentious issues relating to land acquisition like whether land should be acquired or leased out to private players and whether multi-crop lands should be acquired or not have now been left to the discretion of state governments. Land is a state subject but land acquisition is in the concurrent list of the Constitution.
CONTROVERSIES THAT HAUNT UPA
Sunita Narain's opinion pieces
Whether it was the Delhi gang rape protests or the protests against Kudankulam nuclear power plant, the government failed to address the concerns of the very people who elected it to power
The mines in Bellary have reopened. Efforts are on the find ways to reopen the iron ore mines of Goa as well. But how will government contain mining activity so that its cumulative impact is not unsustainable?
The argument of the UPA government that environmentalists are squarely to blame for economic slowdown is not entirely true
Government's assumption that with pushy announcements foreign and Indian investments will start pouring in ignores one crucial detail: currently, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure are on the cusp of disaster
The common refrain in political circles is that green clearances are holding up growth. But it is the reverse that is true: green clearances are certainly failing to safeguard the environment
We have forgotten that development cannot be development if it takes lives of the very people for whom it is meant
NIYAMGIRI
People veto bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills, but will mining and metals giant Vedanta let go of the bounty
WESTERN GHATS
The Western Ghats chain is recognised as a global biodiversity hot spot. But in the absence of a clear land use policy, many development projects are pushed through without proper scrutiny
POSCO
A photo feature that captures the mood of the people whose land is being taken away for POSCO steel project
The South Korean giant will now have to apply for fresh environmental clearance
The Odisha government is trying to acquire land on a shoddily drawn compensation package
Mining in Odisha's Khandadhar hills will dry out perennial water bodies
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