Many successful careers begin from ordinary colleges, says rediffGURU Radheshyam Zanwar as he guides worried a class 12 student who was unable to secure admission at an IIT.
Many people's groups have taken up the cause of Mumbai's slum dwellers, especially since the city municipal authorities set up the Slum Rehabilitation Authority.
NREGS has no place in the scheme of things that Kejriwal prescribes for the nation in his book Swaraj.
Rahul Gandhi talks of compassion as a necessary element for development. Sreelatha Menon examines
Despite warnings from a parliamentary panel, the list of tax exemptions in 2012-13 shows a rising trend.
Arvind Kejriwal's agitation in Delhi has woken up the opposition from its slumber, says Sreelatha Menon
State governments yet to act on sorting MGNREGA wage delays
Sreelatha Menon wishes India gets angry about some other issues in a similar way as it has been upset over the menace of crimes against women.
The early warning system gives Indian authorities sufficient time for action, says Gyan Varma & Sreelatha Menon
Arvind Kejriwal, social activist and founder member of the India Against Corruption, tells Sreelatha Menon their biggest mistake was not to give room to other issues and voices when support for the movement against corruption was at its peak.
The very people whom you would imagine to be supporters of Anna are against him for being exclusivist, high handed, and a stooge for right wing parties, writes Sreelatha Menon
Gaps in labour legislation and India's reluctance to ratify two ILO conventions are stoking disputes over trade union recognition between managements and workers.
The killing of Sister Valsa John over tribal rights is another episode of land dispute in the coal belt, writes Sreelatha Menon
A principle adopted to ensure rehabilitation of evacuees alongside progress on projects is known for violations.
A rural women's university is pioneering an effort to teach microfinance through practical lessons in the villages of Sonepat.
The Tamil Nadu development formula makes programmes like the NREGS work through simple but top-down solutions.
If the government can act against sympathisers of Naxalites, it should act against khap sympathisers too, Supreme Court advocate Kamini Jaiswal tells Sreelatha Menon
Kerala has used the Centre's Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to the advantage of its government hospitals.
"In the last five years, government has begun to listen. Not that they do anything."
'The way he had his finger on the pulse of individuals was great. Besides, the state had a buoyant economy during his tenure. The rain gods also stood by him, unlike in the case of his predecessor.'
Nachiket Mor is today championing the concept of residential bridge schools for dropouts.
The key to successful implementation of many government schemes lies in a few ifs.
In a conversation with Sreelatha Menon, he says anything that brings assets to the poor is great, but the poor also need an access to macrofinance.
A physics professor has applied science to suggest ways to help the country get rid of its ills and the result is a comprehensive and smart formula for social change.
Chhattisgarh needs special people's offices to identify skills and link them to earning possibilities
'The Congress and the BJP are both pro-foreign and pro-rich. They should merge. They are not allowing space to pro-poor voices. If you do this, you are leading people to anarchist forces.'
A touch-screen computer on classroom tables in New Delhi helps activity-based learning go online.
If everything goes as expected, Arya, now a second year graduation student of a Thiruvananthapuram college, would not only become the new mayor of Kerala's capital, a position held by several significant personalities in the past, but also the youngest ever mayor in the country.
Salman Khurshid, who holds the portfolios of minority affairs and corporate affairs, tells Sreelatha Menon that he wants greater public participation in development programmes.
CK Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at the University of Michigan and author of books on innovative business models that can help end world poverty, talks about corporate social responsibility in an interview with Business Standard.
A military solution to Naxalism is neither possible nor desirable, Dr Binayak Sen, a doctor and an activist, tells Sreelatha Menon, after his release from two years of detention.
Magsaysay awardee Aruna Roy tells Sreelatha Menon that she is ready to chase a new dream, a School for Democracy.
Improving the quality of education is the greatest challenge before the government, says Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal.
K Chandramouli, commissioner, Employees Provident Fund, tells Business Standard's Sreelatha Menon that expansion of the fund will make it sustainable.
The purpose of the rural job scheme is being defeated as, in this drought year, focus on providing work and timely wages is lost in other things, says economist and activist Jean Dreze.
The right to food campaign, which is a collaboration of people's movements from across the country, is now on the verge of seeing its demand of a right to food become a reality.
A revolution in the country's health system is firmly under way, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss tells Sreelatha Menon.
Andhra Pradesh sets up centres to provide legal help to the poor caught in land disputes; the model may be replicated in other states.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit says in an interview that the Centre can continue to handle the city's law and order situation but should reform the police system.
