In this report, ESCAP explores the future of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, focusing on the dynamic shifts in the region’s urban landscape. It highlights the region’s demographic transformations, including population ageing, and the persistent challenges of urban poverty and inequality. The analysis covers urban areas of all sizes, …
The government's 11th Five-Year Plan initiative to spread micro-land ownership across the country has the potential to help 50 lakh people (or 1 lakh families) to secure land over the next five years, according to the Rural Development Institute (RDI). The RDI is an international non-profit organisation working closely with …
At the time of destructive floods, the distress of affected people attracts attention but, unfortunately, as soon as the flood waters recede they are forgotten. A recent visit to several flood-affected villages of Bihar made it very clear that the flood-affected people are still suffering. March 2008
Unemployment is a common global economic malady, the level of which distinctly varies between developed and underdeveloped nations with Keynesian involuntary and frictional type in respect of developed nation and structural type in regard to an under developed country like India which attributes to maximum growth of population and insignificant …
This paper attempts to define the common people of India in terms of levels of consumption and examines their socio-economic profile in different periods of time since the early 1990s with a view to assessing how the economic growth process has impacted on their lives. The findings should worry everyone. …
It will provide only short-term relief THERE arefour crore small and marginal farmers who are unable to repay their crop loans to the banks. The Rs 60,000-crore budgetary allocation for waiving their loans will now enable a farmer to go back to the same bank, apply for another loan and …
RAMBAN: J&K; Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB) secretary R C Sharma reviewed progress under Rural Employment Generation Scheme (REGS) of the backward districts of Ramban and Doda today. It was informed that KVIB so far have set up 99 units with the bank loans of Rs. 196.99 lakhs and …
6,630 houses constructed for homeless families The Haryana Rural Development Department has spent Rs.175.14 crore so far for the welfare of Below Poverty line (BPL) families and creation of community assets and infrastructure in the villages, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Rural Development) Urvashi Gulati said on Saturday. In a …
The Agribusiness Support Fund's (ASF) appraisal committee has approved 96 grants worth Rs 22.2 million for different private sector agribusiness enterprises focusing on reducing poverty in rural areas. According to a message received here on Saturday the committee meeting, held in Lahore early this week. Particularly considered NWFP, FANA and …
This report presents an overview of the impact of rural livelihood programmes supported by DFID in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, and explores some of the lessons learned under headings of income generation and rural growth, better management of natural resources, targeting the poorest and marginalised, and local …
Does away with middlemen; ten States keen to replicate model The implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) through biometric smart cards in Andhra Pradesh has attracted nationwide attention, with many States planning to adopt a similar method. Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd (FINO), a Mumbai-based technology solutions …
Economy on the move: The President, Ms Pratibha Patil, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr P.R. Dasmunshi, arriving to attend the first day of the Budget Session at Parliament House in the Capital on Monday.
It is not possible to realise the massive potential of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act if we deploy the same ossified structure of implementation that has deeply institutionalised corruption, inefficiency and non-accountability into the very fabric of Indian democracy.
Bihar's fall from a state with healthy socio-economic indices to now being one of India's least developed states has been drastic. The major failures lie in governance, and in the downfall of the agricultural sector. A study of the perennial story of flooding and relief measures and the consequent failure …
This article critically examines the use of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund by different states and finds that a number of aspects need to be improved to ensure proper utilisation and to reduce intra-rural disparity in India. Feb 16-22, 2008
From the highway the gravestones were visible. Thirteen headstones, rough and blunt, carved with names of each dead tribal. Each stone was placed so that together they formed a semi-circle looking down at us. In front of the 13-stone platform was a fenced area with scattered burnt sticks lying as …
An argument over a Valentine's Day gift leads shubhranshu choudhary to the politics of an aluminium ladder On the eve of Valentine's Day, a friend of my son persuades me to take my wife "out for dinner and buy her a nice gift'. I thank her for the idea but …
prime Minister Manmohan Singh rightly called Naxalism a "virus' during a meeting with chief ministers of Naxalite-affected states. Unfortunately, he did not take the analogy further. A virus cannot grow or reproduce without a living cell. Naxalites, thus, must have living hosts. Singh failed to identify the living organism that …
Small farm holders dominate the agricultural landscape in India - provides largest source of subsistence but they still remain highly susceptible to poverty and hunger because neither they get sufficient food production nor income to ensure household food security. Despite notable contributions in food production and sharing land and water …
