United Way, an alliance of MNCs and social agents, works on a belief that philanthropy finds new ways of giving in times of economic distress, says Sreelatha Menon.
The finance ministry has appointed a Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, which will soon roll out a National Pension Scheme for the informal sector or for whoever wants to join.
A new government plan aims to multiply the number of skill development centres and the number of people who get vocational training.
Private security industry is now five-million strong, but lack of rules ensures that the guards are exploited, says a report by trade unions.
India is yet to devise a government mechanism to compensate those who live atop mineral-rich areas in Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, says Sreelatha Menon.
State Bank of India alone has extended a majority of the 1,900 loans. The National Housing Bank, which developed the scheme that is meant for people aged above 55 years, feels that the poor show is due to the lack of awareness among senior citizens, who number stands at 76 million according to the 2001 census data, and lack of enthusiasm on the part of the banks.
The minimum wage of Rs 80, which is applicable to central public sector undertakings, will see a 30 to 40 per cent jump in a single year once the changes are notified. The decision to hike the minimum wage level was taken by the Central Advisory Board at its meeting chaired by Minister for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes last week. The National Floor Level Minimum Wage of Rs 80 is likely to cross Rs 100 once the notification is issued.
Central officials said despite many enquiries by the ministry about the condition of the embankments, the state government kept silent. It did not bother to inform the ministry even when the embankments gave way, they said. In fact, the Bihar water resources department's daily newsletter said a day before the breach that the embankments were standing strong, officials said.
Increased bank interest rates and new capital adequacy norms of the Reserve Bank of India will soon weigh heavily on the poorest of the poor as microfinance institutions are also contemplating raising interest rates.
The ruling coalition, which survived the confidence vote in Parliament on Tuesday, is aiming to cover 60 million households (or about 300 million people) across the country in the next five years under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, which it announced last year. Already, 300-odd patients insured under the scheme have availed of this facility in various listed hospitals in Delhi and Haryana.
The students have now written to their university to involve more students in similar initiatives in the rural areas where they can use their knowledge for development. Agilent is planning to go bigger this year with more students from other institutions to be involved in the education for development drive.
The bauxite-rich Gandhamardan hill in Orissa is likely to become the centre of an environmental and cultural controversy again after two decades. In 1986, India's third-largest alumunium producer Balco had applied for a mining lease in the area when it was a government company. This year, the hill is being sought by Balco again, but this time as a private company owned by London-based commodities entrepreneur Anil Agarwal's Vedanta group.
The Bhopal Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Department is talking to the Indian Army and the Delhi-based National Institute of Disaster Management to help remove the toxic waste lying in the premises of the closed Union Carbide for the last 24 years. Last month, the department requested the Indian Army to help dispose of the waste.
Fodder prices have shot up since 2000, thanks to exports and central excise duty on molasses, which is used to make fodder. The recent inflationary trends have only added to the woes. The molasses used by the cattle-feed industry attracts central excise duty at the rate of Rs 500 per million tonne since 1998. In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the government has intervened to cushion the dairy producers against inflation by raising the support prices marginally.
An internal note obtained by activists from the Prime Minister's Office and dated February 2 this year says that the Ministry of Law believes that 'irrespective of the manner in which Union Carbide has merged or has been acquired by Dow, if there is any legal liability it would have to be borne by Dow Chemicals.' The note also puts a question mark on the prospects for future investments by US-based Dow in India.
The two issues that remain are whether Dow inherited Union Carbide's liabilities and why the government never cleaned up Bhopal after settling with Carbide
High food prices have driven inflation to new highs, leading the Centre to clamp down on export of farm commodities.
The latest report says the forest cover is around 20 per cent of the land in the country, 3 per cent less than the area under the forest departments. But the report does not make a distinction between tree cover, commercial plantations and natural forest cover. To qualify as "forest cover", the Forest Survey of India considers 10 per cent tree canopy area and one hectare. So, if a householder has, say, a hectare of coconut palm, his land would qualify as forest cover.
The latest to take up the matter and join issue with the ministry is none other than Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who sent a message from Kolkata to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, asking him not to allow a proposal to serve biscuits and pre-packaged food to pre-school children. Sen also asked the PM to prevent the move to replace cooked food with packaged food as part of the mid-day meal scheme in elementary schools.
The prime minister of India is over 75 and the man driving the nation's Metro revolution, E Sreedharan, is 75. It seems the world is destined to be eternally young.
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