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

Why Hirakud dam failed to check flood

The river has strayed from its flood control route

Where’s Bhoodan Land?

Bank’s first contest

Developing countries challenge US monopoly by putting up candidates for World Bank’s presidency

THE SECOND INDEPENDENCE

Tiny forgotten villages teach India a firsthand lesson in governance. Down To Earth reporters and photographers fan out to six states to discover …

Rickshaw pullers get together

On January 5, 2003 hundreds of rickshaw pullers in Hyderabad got together to declare: "Protect our right on roads."

Let states decide

Lean, mean scheme

Budget to start process of reforming Central rural schemes, 45 years after first demand

Ready for guillotining?

Blame it on the foreign hand

Centre's motive behind the unseen "foreign hand" theory is to polarise the development discourse

Second disempowerment

Tribals have lost their decision-making power twice; first to the state then to the Maoists

Myth of onion

The humble vegetable’s price is not a lethal weapon against politicians but their victim

New leader, old challenge

India’s first PM born after Independence will face the old problem of poverty eradication

Devolution is bankrupt

Now even the World Bank says money should flow to local bodies directly

Have regional parties delivered?

They have not offered an alternative path to development to reflect local aspirations

End of dividend

Zero hour

RIP Panchayati Raj ministry

The new-found `cooperative federalism' will kill the third tier of government in India

Boss, the real beehive!

Rahul Gandhi’s idea of governance needs fresh focus. How about more autonomy to nearly 240,000 panchayats?

The forgotten class

Middle class-driven anti-corruption campaign does not acknowledge the poor

For the record

Making sense of `Make in India'

Manufacturing needs to get a boost. But what to manufacture and how are two critical questions

Feeble Rights

Rights-based governance has not been accompanied by effective delivery mechanism

Reclaiming retail democracy

Lone warrior

One man's battle to save a village economy