New Delhi: The Planning Commission on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the below poverty line (BPL) population in the country is 40.74 crore and the poverty line for the urban and rural areas could be provisionally placed at Rs 965 per capita per month (around Rs 32 per day) and Rs 781 per capita per month (around Rs 26 per day), respectively. The Planning Commission in an affidavit said...
07:59 AM, Sep 21, 2011
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has suggested the formation of a separate and independent commission to identify Below Poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries under the proposed food security law. He said the Commission should work independently like the Election Commission, which would help both the state and Central Governments in identifying the real BPL beneficiaries. "I suggest the formation of an independent commission which should regularly identify the BPL...
01:43 PM, Sep 16, 2011
New Delhi: Just yards from the east London street where riots erupted on Monday stands a house for sale that sums up the depth of division in the area. With five bedrooms, three bathrooms and its own coach house, the elegant property has been put up for sale with an asking price of 1.7 million pounds. The main attraction, according to the advert, is the sought-after location. Many residents of...
02:08 PM, Aug 10, 2011
People, Left, Right or Centre, would possibly agree that an internally weak country cant negotiate with the rest of the world from a position of strength. Internal strength of a country cannot be measured just in terms of resources at its disposal, military power, technological expertise and production capacity. Strength of its people is a countrys biggest asset. Economic empowerment of the masses is critical to emergence of a strong...
12:36 PM, Jul 08, 2011
United Nations: India has contributed to a large reduction in global poverty, according to the UN annual report on the Millennium Development Goals, which also pointed out that despite progress, the most vulnerable sections of society were being left out. The report, which was released on Thursday, said that poverty continues to decline in many countries and regions. It said that the fastest and sharpest reductions in poverty were in...
10:43 AM, Jul 08, 2011
Washington: The World Bank has approved $ 1 billion credit for National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP), which it said is aimed at strengthening the implementation of the newly launched National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). NRLM is one of the world's largest poverty reduction initiative of approximately $ 7.7 billion, aiming to reach 350 million people or almost a quarter of India s population. It would help NRLM create an institutional...
11:51 AM, Jul 06, 2011
Agartala: A nationwide socio-economic and caste census to identify people living below poverty line (BPL) was flagged off from Shankhola on Wednesday, a remote tribal hamlet in Tripura West district. Rural Development Secretary B K Sinha said, "Those names would be deleted from the list of BPL beneficiaries who own a vehicle or two-wheelers, pucca houses, land phone, fishing trawler besides government employees having income above Rs 10,000 or holders...
04:31 PM, Jun 29, 2011
Bangalore: Observing that politics should be an instrument for socio-economic transformation, BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that India was facing poverty and unemployment due to 'wrong governance'. "India is a rich nation full of poor people. The country is facing challenges of unemployment and poverty owing to wrong economic policy and wrong governance," he said. Delivering his address at the 94th Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and...
05:41 PM, Jun 24, 2011
T Vijay Kumar was standing at a lectern and talking about slaying the dragon of poverty. An Andhra Pradesh Cadre IAS officer, he had fought some stiff battles with the mother of all miseries and so people were keen to listen to him. This was at a conference on human development in Delhi last year. And then he made a statement that caught the policy wonks and social activists by...
11:34 AM, May 20, 2011
![Anubha Bhonsle]( "Anubha Bhonsle")
Lots of things shame me about India (I take great pride in lots as well). For instance, farmers forced to commit suicide because ...
06:10 PM, May 12, 2011
Thiruvananthapuram: CPM in Kerala on Monday hit back at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi for their alleged remarks that LDF was living in the past, saying the Front's policies were not for generating millionaires but for alleviating poverty. LDF did not believe in the "new line of Prime Minister and Gandhi of generating millionaires in the country," CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters. The Prime...
03:56 PM, Apr 11, 2011
United Nations: There was a sense of disbelief among ministers and ambassadors from diverse nations when the chairperson of the 11th Info-Poverty World Conference held at the United Nations introduced the jeans-clad Chhavi Rajawat as head of a village in India. For, from a distance one could easily mistake Rajawat, an articulate, computer-savvy woman, for a frontline model or at least a Bollywood actress. But she is sarpanch of Soda...
10:06 AM, Mar 28, 2011
New Delhi: The Left parties on Monday accused the Government of not taking any step to check high prices, poverty, unemployment or corruption, saying the budget was aimed at burdening the poor and subsidising the rich. The CPI(M) said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee promised to bring in or amend seven legislations to liberalise the financial sector and attract FDI which the UPA-I government could not do because of Left opposition....
05:18 PM, Feb 28, 2011
Thiruvananthapuram: The Left Front government in Kerala is set to announce an ambitious programme where rice for all would be offered at Rs 2 per kg, according to state Finance Minister Thomas Issac. Currently rice for Rs 2 is available to only those who are listed in the below poverty line category. For other card holders, the price is Rs 9 per kg. Speaking to IANS, Issac Tuesday confirmed reports...
11:57 PM, Feb 22, 2011
![Mahima Sharma]( "Mahima Sharma")
This Sunday afternoon, it was all dripping with unexpected showers taking the national capital in its humid lap. A lazy afternoon that urged me to ...
10:15 AM, Feb 18, 2011
Islamabad: Five handicapped siblings, suffering from a degenerative disease, put up their old parents for auction in Pakistan's Punjab province as the family had nothing to eat and had been starving for the past two days. The auction of the parents was organised outside the district coordination officer (DCO) office in Khanewal town, Express Tribune reported Friday. The disabled brothers and sisters invited bids to sell their parents, saying that...
11:49 AM, Feb 11, 2011
New York: Unemployment, poverty and social injustice are the top global concerns and most people think their country is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new poll. The Ipsos/Reuters survey of 18,676 adults in 24 nations in Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America also showed that only a third of global citizens are 'satisfied' with the way things are going in their own country. The lack...
12:12 PM, Feb 02, 2011
![Hemender Sharma]( "Hemender Sharma")
The English dictionary defines a farmer as someone who operates a farm or cultivates land. Ownership of such land is inconsequential. If sixty-three years after ...
04:45 PM, Jan 31, 2011
India is witnessing a silent malnutrition crisis. 17 kids have been the victims in a single slum locality in Mumbai since April 2010. ...
09:30 PM, Dec 14, 2010
New York: Nearly half of elderly Americans will face a future with at least one year below or close to the poverty line, according to a new study that showed a huge racial divide in prospects for the elderly. Mark R. Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the results of his research contradict popular beliefs about the economic stability of America's elderly population. "We have an...
10:06 AM, Dec 14, 2010
