Post-CWG cleanup: Government bank accounts made accessible to the common man; SMS alerts on withdrawals to keep check on corruption

Oct 24, 2010

Imagine: Every time money is withdrawn from the home ministry’s or the railway department’s bank account, you will get an alert on your mobile. You can even check the purpose of the withdrawal and have a right to object to that. All that

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Malaria deaths in India 13 times higher than what WHO claims

Oct 22, 2010

In India, over two lakh people, including about 80,000 children below the age of 15 years, die because of malaria. The claim is made by a study published in reputed medical journal The Lancet. The researchers have provided a range with a lower

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How many are ‘poor’ in India? SC asks government to give ‘real’ number

Oct 20, 2010

The Supreme Court has asked the government to come up with a ‘real number’ on people living below poverty line (BPL). The court said that the official data claiming that there were 5.9 crore BPL families in the country was not convincing. An

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Posco violated environmental laws; uncertainty clouds biggest FDI project

Oct 19, 2010

South Korean steel major Posco’s India project faces a huge cloud of uncertainty. The expert panel set up by the environment ministry has accused the company of violating environmental laws. Three of four members of the committee recommended that all initial clearances to

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A cycling India: To carve an alternative growth trail

Oct 19, 2010

By no means should it seem amazing – that bicycle ownership (30″50 per cent) in Indian cities is much higher than ownership of cars (3″13 per cent) and two-wheelers. Bicycle use in India varies from 7″15 per cent in    large cities to

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Sustainable access: Correcting the wrongs of lopsided development

Oct 16, 2010

We cannot solve the problems that we have created with the same thinking that created them.’ – ” Albert Einstein The phrase ‘sustainable development’ buzzes around politics and economics today, but seldom is the phrase defined and even more rarely is the concept

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Development will happen, but not at the cost of environment and nature: Ramesh

Oct 16, 2010

‘Economic growth is our overriding priority; there is no doubt that we have to grow at 8 to 9 per cent a year, but not at the cost of environment, not at the cost of nature, not at the cost of our forests,

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Empowered women, rural progress and green revolution will help India prosper

Oct 14, 2010

‘There is no substitute to women empowerment. If we have to bring social equality in the country, women have to be happy in individual homes as well as society. The nation will not prosper without their happiness,’ said President Pratibha Patil. ‘Women had

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CSR kitty of oil companies to subsidize gas for rural poor

Oct 13, 2010

With an aim to provide clean fuel to rural India, the finance ministry has approved the oil ministry’s proposal to provide extremely subsidized cooking gas connections to over seven million poor families in rural areas. The subsidy will be shared equally between the

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CSR is a way of doing business ‘will be considered in Companies Bill 2009

Oct 11, 2010

‘There was no question of making corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory,’ said Salman Khursheed, minister of corporate affairs, in an interview to Mint on October 9 while discussing the Companies Bill, 2009, that will soon be tabled before the parliament. ‘I think CSR

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