Who are the poor?

Planning Commission's poverty estimates do not reflect ground reality

An exercise in flippancy

Planning Commission report for a low-carbon future disappoints

Time for an overhaul

Having served the country for more than a century and a half, the Indian Railways has taken apathy in its stride. Politicians’ whims, and …

Who are the poor?

Identifying the poor and measuring the poverty is a contentious issue. Poverty line is not a sacred line. At best, it indicates how far the …

Poverty level will increase if health expenditure included

Planning Commission factors in less than one rupee a day as health expenditure in its affidavit to the apex court

Diesel price hike: no scope for roll back

'Not raising diesel prices would harm economy much more'

Scientists’ panel to add new member for report on GM field trials

Weeks after expert committee recommended moratorium Supreme Court agrees to agriculture ministry's request to add new member to panel

Major revamp of ICDS recommended

Inter-ministerial report calls for improving infrastructure and facilities at anganwadi centres

Union Budget: challenges of public provisioning in India

Will the first budget of the 12th Five-Year Plan make a serious effort to plug loopholes in revenue collection and increase spending on social …

ASHAs not enough to deliver healthcare to urban poor: study

'Women in urban slums need a basket of healthcare services to meet their needs'

'Development in Telangana should be participatory'

Eminent economist and former Planning Commission member, C H Hanumantha Rao, speaks to M Suchitra on the aspirations of people of Telangana. Rao …

Push to include access to energy in UN development goals

Speakers at a consultative meeting in Delhi call for finding sustainable and affordable technological solutions for making energy accessible to …

Direct Cash Transfer scheme begins on low key

Government scales down UID-linked scheme to 248,000 people in 20 districts

We need our slaves

India tops the list of countries with huge numbers of modern slaves. But there is little outrage or concern here over what is an everyday reality

A lame duck Schedule of the Constitution

The true potential of the Fifth Schedule was diluted right at its conception

What happened to India’s flood management plan?

There is no national-level flood control authority in India — 43 years after the country’s first and last commission …

Health goals of 11th Five-Year Plan unmet. 12th Plan hopes to achieve them

Planning Commission's working group recommends repeating last Plan targets in the 12th Plan

Centre launches MGNREGA 2.0

30 new types of work added to the rural job guarantee scheme list to restore demand for work under UPA's flagship welfare programme

Universal health scare

The country’s planners are debating how to provide healthcare to all. In a drastic shift from the 65-year-old public health system, the …

Fresh development plan for naxal-affected districts

Rural schemes to be more flexible; get more funds

MoEF failed to protect environment: Public Accounts Committee

Forest cover of India is just 21 per cent against the target of 33 per cent set by Planning Commission for 2012

Jobless growth comes to haunt beleaguered UPA government

Any job creation policy will have to refocus on ecology that has been giving employment to a large section of the population

Lives of others

Wildlife is more of an academic concern except when the charismatic tiger is wiped out from a protected forest or our favourite fish vanishes …

The big challenges for Telangana

Telangana region accounts for huge chunk of natural resources of undivided Andhra Pradesh. Will creation of new state intensify existing regional …

A step-by-step guide on how Union budget is formulated

To start the process, the budget division issues an annual budget circular around the last week of August or the first fortnight of September …