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, …
Even as we celebrate 60 years of Indian democracy, with millions of our people hungry, cynical and insecure, and living under the barrel of the gun (of the state or the extremists), we need to worry about the reach and quality of our political process. The National Rural Employment Guarantee …
World Development Report 2008 calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries.The report warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized.
On August 28, senior police officers and forest department personnel of two contiguous districts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka held a joint meeting to combat the growing Naxal presence in forest areas. Erode in Tamil Nadu, one of the two districts in question, had not far back been the hunting …
Union minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh defends reports of irregularities in implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in a interview with Sandip Das Problem areas in implementing NREGA We have to change the mindset of officials who have been in charge of rural development schemes since …
The dismal situation and poor quality of life in rural India is because of unavailability of energy. It is shown that sophisticated technology can help solve this and other problems of rural areas. A call is made to the global technological community to help provide such technologies. Finally issues of …
The food consumption pattern in India is diversifying towards high value commodities. The decline in per capita consumption of cereals, in particular, coarse cereals, has worsened the nutritional status of the rural poor. On the basis of National Sample Survey data on dietary patterns and consumer expenditure, this article examines …
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega), 2006, is degenerating into yet another poverty alleviation scheme. At the same time, officials are congratulating themselves on the act's performance, and there is even talk of extending its scope. Their exhilaration betrays an ignorance of the contradictions between nrega's intent and ground …
Ethnic conflicts have dogged India since independence. The problem has attracted a lot of scholarship. Amarjyoti Borah talks to two eminent academics who have looked at the problem. Ram Dayal Munda, currently chief advisor, Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, puts the problem of tribal people in the country …
The northeast has been badly affected by ethnic strife. DILIP GOGOI of Cotton College, Guwahati, on its vulnerability Are ethnic conflicts more frequent in the northeast compared to other parts of India? In the northeast, communities are consolidated on ethnic lines. In other parts of India caste identities are strong. …
The Micro Financial Sector (Development & Regulations) Bill 2007 has been under the scanner of late. The bill proposes to make the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (nabard) the regulator of micro-finance sector in the country. Until now, the Reserve Bank of India has been regulating financial organisations …
The idea of defining poverty in terms of a poverty line was first introduced during the India Labour Conference in 1957. A working group under the Planning Commission then stipulated a poverty line of Rs 20 per person per month. In 1979, a Planning Commission task force fixed a poverty …
parshit Kurmi, a daily-wage labourer in Delhi since 1991, was puzzled when he was told that the government's latest estimate had found poverty levels were coming down. For the past 16 years, Kurmi's life has been uncertain as he struggles to survive. "In Delhi, I earn more, but am poorer …
Should we feel comfortable with the latest government claim that unemployment is coming down? The government says unemployment has come down due to growth. During the 2006-07 budget, finance minister P Chidambaram reiterated that growth rate must go up further for unemployment to go down. Development economists and government agencies …
50 more districts in the ambit After months of squabbling among the Union ministry of rural development (MoRD), the Union ministry of finance (MoF) and the Planning Commission, the Centre has agreed to extend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to another 50 districts. Currently, NREGA is in operation …
In rural Vidharbha, theatre is thriving probably because of a play that has struck chord with agriculturists here. Called Atma Hatya, the play has drawn daily audiences in excess of 5,000. "We have farmers, tailors, painters and vendors in our plays,' says Ghulam Sufi of the Venkatesh natya mandali that …
The Union budget 2007-08 will very likely slash development funds for the most backward regions of India by more than 48 per cent, say sources at the Union ministry of Panchayati Raj. Government is expected to further slash budgetary support to development schemes to adhere to the Fiscal Responsibility and …
book: COMANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES: LOCAL LEARNING FOR POVERTY REDUCTION *by Stephen R Tyler* International Development Research Centre The contemporary state of resource management (nrm) holds two important lessons. One, environment and poverty cannot be de-linked. Two, managing resources
There is a great push to make panchayats the fulcrum of rural development in India. But 16 years after the third tier of government was created, it has not got its due. RAMESH Singh Yadav is much sought after. Especially among creditors and moneylenders, to whom he owes a total …
