Free 35 kg rice a month, free power supply to farmers, crop loans to peasants at zero per cent interest rate are among the sops promised by Congress in its manifesto for Chhattisgarh assembly elections scheduled this month.
One third of the world's poor live in India.
Attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the proposed Food Security Bill, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the bill, in its current form, will push the country toward "malnutrition".
'I love the fire in Indian entrepreneurs's eyes. I just hate how Indian society does not believe that entrepreneurship is a means to earn a living or create change. That limits us from doing or thinking beyond the ordinary.' A winner of the prestigious ITU Young Innovators Award, Varun Arora tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore how he plans to change the way the world gets its education.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
'The uneducated think of their rights as a gift. This is deeply troubling.' 'If they were educated they could claim what is rightfully theirs.'
After nine years in power, the United Progressive Alliance faces the question of credibility, says Aditi Phadnis
The move is being planned with a view to ensuring that the benefits provided by the government reach the beneficiaries and the process remains transparent.
'We will do whatever is necessary when the day and moment arrives.' 'As a party which has ruled Maharashtra for most of its existence, we also have our base and turf to protect.'
How Kamal Nath left the Opposition leaders stumped... Why Montek Singh is avoiding the poverty line... Mamata Banerjee's newest enemy. All this, and more, in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
How Kamal Nath left the Opposition leaders stumped... Why Montek Singh is avoiding the poverty line... Mamata Banerjee's newest enemy. All this, and more, in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
In a letter to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has outlined his concerns about the faulty implementation of the Indira Awaas Yojana in the state.
The poverty ratio was highest in Chhattisgarh at 39.93 per cent.
Attorney General K K Venugopal told a bench headed by Justice Bobde that the Constitution (103 amendment) Act, 2019 granting 10 per cent reservation to EWS is intended to uplift around 200 million people who are still below the poverty line.
'Inequality has been growing in the world. The virus has only amplified it.'
The Union government has released Rs 184 crore to the government of Tamil Nadu -- to construct one lakh houses for families living below the poverty line under the Indira Awaz Yojana -- in Cuddalore and Villupuram where Cyclone Thane had wreaked its havoc.
On the ground, rural medical infrastructure and more crucially, women's access to reproductive health services is practically non-existent in Uttar Pradesh, reports Geetanjali Krishna.
TCS has got a special recognition for its initiative to the lift of one million people in the inner part of India, by reaching out to the educated among the backward community and training them as well as making them economically-active through employment, TCS' Singapore-based President Vish Iyer told PTI on Monday.
The United Progressive Alliance government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has three more ambitious plans for Below Poverty Line families, a source in the government told rediff.com
Men don't have a uterus -- that's the universal truth. But in Bihar's Samastipur district, officials and doctors have, on paper, removed uteruses of more than a dozen men on paper to usurp the health insurance money provided under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday hit back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for questioning his developmental claims and manner of implementing social welfare works.
"The government is wrong. It is wrong because it is clueless," Chidambaram said. "It is unable to look for the obvious clues because it is stubborn and mulish in defending its catastrophic mistakes like demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism, regulatory overkill, protectionism, and centralised control of decision-making in the Prime Minister's Office."
Indira Awaas Yojana, a social welfare programme started to provide homes to the poorest of the poor, has fallen prey to rampant corruption in Bihar, the latest Comptroller and Auditor General report has said.
The committee, to be constituted in a couple of months, would take a comprehensive view on the entire method of estimating poverty, including the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011.
A Parliamentary panel suggested scrapping separate foodgrain rate and quota for poor and general public and said the UPA's ambitious Food Bill should guarantee 5 kg of rice and wheat to all beneficiaries at uniform price of Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively.
Amid controversy over the Gujarat government's poverty figures, the Congress on Tuesday took a jibe at the Narendra Modi-led government, questioning if poor people were only migrating to that state.
'In May 2020-2021, nearly 10 crores (100 million) lost jobs. 'Covid is not the reason for the present crisis. It aggravated the crisis.'
It will also end the below and above poverty line (BPL and APL) demarcation, prevailing in the current public distribution system.
The Lok Sabha was adjourned on Wednesday following uproar over fresh poverty estimates released by the Planning Commission, which pegged the poverty line at Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities. As soon as the House met, National Democratic Alliance convener Sharad Yadav and Communist Party of India leader Prabodh Panda were on their feet, demanding suspension of the Question Hour for a discussion on the latest poverty estimates of the Planning Commission.
Steve Waugh captures the spirit of cricket in India during his many trips to the country.
The arguments in favour of the proposed 'Har Hath Mein Phone' scheme are strong. The challenge lies in its implementation.
Soon after the Rajya Sabha met for the day, members from Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal-United, Bahujan Samaj Party, All India Anna Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam and the Left parties were on their feet seeking a discussion on the issue.
A financially destructive populist culture of giving voters freebies in TN has left the state with massive bills.
The state of Bihar will now monitor the public distribution system (PDS) through laptops to check corruption and to provide help to those living below poverty line (BPL), to get their monthly quota of essential commodities including food grain and kerosene oil, officials said.
New census will include questions about religion and castes.
Farm activists say low MSP is fine, if salaries revised under the Sixth Pay Commission are lowered.
Under attack over the Rs 32 per capita per day (in urban India and Rs 26 per day per person in rural areas) cut off for poverty line, the Planning Commission on Monday distanced itself from the controversial definition presented to the Supreme Court saying it did not represent its views.
'Second-generation neoliberal policies, coupled with multiple failures on the food front, could do to the UPA what India Shining did to the NDA in 2004,' says Praful Bidwai.
Among the major states, Orissa recorded the steepest fall in poverty from 2004-05 to 2009-10.
We have our own problems for sure and they are not trivial, but for now, our economy is in not too bad a shape, our politics is as personality-driven and authoritarian as that of most countries in the world. We must make the best of what we have and not be excessively unhappy looking at the grass on the other side of the septic tank which may not be greener after all!, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
