How India remains poor: Has poverty become ‘hereditary’

Millions of Indian households transfer poverty to the next generation, making poverty eradication nearly impossible

Nepal's poor carry it off

As the Himalayan country's forestry scheme for the poor reaps rich dividends, its government entrusts more degraded areas to the underprivileged. …

Prices rise, not hunger

People prefer to eat less nutritious food than go hungry, says FAO

Raghuvansh Prasad, minister for rural development, on NREGA

No substance in budget's agriculture hype

'Social protection: a safety net for agricultural households'

In the run up to World Food Day on October 16, a Food and Agriculture Organization report focuses on the role of social protection in …

Tackling poverty

INDIA: REDUCING POVERTY, ACCELERATING DEVELOPMENT, A WORLD BANK COUNTRY STUDY·Oxford University Press·New Delhi·260 pages

Grains of doubt

Rural affairs ministry rejects wage payment in kind under rural job scheme

Question on employment guarantee scheme's success

Panchayat Raj Half a cheer for democracy

There is a great push to make panchayats the fulcrum of rural development in India. But 16 years after the third tier of government was created, …

Impotent plan?

In August 2005, the Indian Parliament passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega). The latest avatar of state-financed employment …

Scheme against jobs

Government is bent upon shrinking jobs for the poor by fundamentally changing the rural employment guarantee scheme against the advice of its …

Bank at your doorstep

Technology is helping public sector banks find customers in rural India. This is part of the Centre’s efforts to include villages in the …

Perhaps yes, minister

Review finds ADB's policy doesn't hold water

Since 1998, adb has invested us $960 million in urban projects in India.

Paying farmers for ecological services

Centre fund for rural development mismanaged

PDS protests in West Bengal

The god of ecological things

Dying for ration: No health aid for those without PDS cards

Ground report from Jharkhand villages shows many pending applications; Rejected applicants told quota for beneficiaries full

Making money through herbs in Himachal

Medicinal plants can improve the fortunes of state's rural poor

Job half done

25 per cent funds allocated to national rural employment scheme remain unspent

Mandla Brimful of thirst

Average rainfall: 1,300 mm Irrigation: 2% of gross cropped area

A natural secret

Policymakers don't need to go too far to eradicate poverty. The solution is as close as is a village well to a villager

Sarguja Losing battle

First district for tribal development Rampant deforestation Malnutrition and starvation deaths