BEYOND USUAL SUSPECTS A case for neglected species in wildlife research and conservation For most of us wildlife is represented by large mammals like elephant, rhino, lion and tiger, may be birds like hornbill, raptors, peafowl and waterfowl and awe inspiring reptiles like marine turtles, crocodiles, python and king cobra. …
Thermal power generation in India is set to increase manifold shows an analysis of data from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). The country’s total thermal capacity as of April 2011 is 113,000 MW. This capacity is proposed to be increased to 701,820 MW, which is six times …
India's poverty line finally makes headlines. Do a rapid archival search of newspapers, at least of the past 20 years, and one finds that the poverty line never made it to the front pages. In post television boom, it never featured on prime time. But the past one week has …
India's poverty level will go up by 3.6 per cent in rural areas and 2.9 per cent in urban areas if people's expenditure on health is factored in while measuring poverty. A study by the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi redrew the poverty estimates of 2007 (the Planning Commission …
Poverty is becoming hereditary in India, at least for a sizeable population. That is the conclusion derived from a three-decade tracking of poor households in rural India. A survey by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), an international association of researchers and academicians, claims that those who are chronically poor …
At a time when courts hog headlines, this was a conspicuous slip. About two months ago, the Uttarakhand High Court admitted a public interest petition on making gross environmental productivity a co-indicator of the state of the economy along with the standard gross domestic product (GDP). The media did not …
The Centre has decided to modify flagship rural development schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to suit the needs of naxal-affected districts. While the schemes will be made more flexible, funds allocated to them will also increase. The decision was taken at a day-long consultation held …
The Planning Commission of India has set up a working group to look into the drug regulatory mechanism in the country. One of the tasks the panel has been entrusted is to devise a strategy to weed out irrational drugs from the market. Most of these drugs are fixed dose …
Even as the government has finalised its plan to make profit sharing with affected locals mandatory for companies in the coal mining sector as a compensation for area damage and displacement, the Planning Commission, the country
In December 2009, just before the disastrous climate conference at Copenhagen, environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced a voluntary and unilateral emissions reduction target for the country. He committed a 20-25 per cent reduction in the emissions intensity of the country’s GDP by 2020 below the 2005 levels. A month later, …
Health ministry wants allocation to be doubled; Planning panel expected to meet on June 22 India will need Rs 15,000-17,000 crore in four to five years for implementing the Food Safety & Standards Rules, 2011, according to estimates by the health ministry. The Planning Commission is expected to take a …
Kolkata For each wagon of coal that Sajjan Jindal sends to his steel plant in the Bellary belt of Karnataka, it takes four layers of committees at the central government to clear the consignment. But he can consider himself lucky. Had he bought the coal from the market, as hundreds …
THE national vaccine policy draft, submitted in the Delhi High Court recently, strongly favours inclusion of new vaccines in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). The court had sought the draft from the Centre last year in a case against introduction of new vaccines. It will hear the case next on …
The Union Cabinet has approved a headcount to assess the number of people below the poverty line (BPL) after a gap of nine years, but it could not end a debate over the methodology of counting the poor and extending social welfare activities like food and health to all. On …
WATER resources and planning may shift from the State to the Concurrent List of the Constitution. The Ashok Chawla committee will make this suggestion when it tables its report before the Cabinet in June this year, sources say. The committee was set up in February this year to draw a …
WITHIN six months of its implementation, the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), intended to boost development in Naxalite-affected regions, is heading for a change. At present, the plan is being directed by district-level committees with no public participation. The Planning Commission wants to alter this arrangement by imposing conditions on release …
A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor …
THE Planning Commission of India has disowned any responsibility for bringing companies involved in public-private partnership (PPP) projects under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Commission said individual ministries which have tied up with private companies are responsible for these projects. There were several RTI applications filed seeking information …
THE 14th report of the parliamentary standing committee on social justice and empowerment has recommended the planning commission make conditional the annual budgetary allocations of funds to states. It should depend, suggests the committee, on the amount spent on tribal development. Tabled in both Houses of Parliament on March 9, …
Madhya Pradesh is set to overhaul its public distribution system. It has decided to issue PDS users in the state with biometric cards so that no one can impersonate or fake identity. It will also replace food grain with food coupons. In August last year the state signed a Rs …
