Full Coverage: Development

30.12.2005 The Tamil Nadu Government will give Rs.10 crores each to all the universities in the State to implement programmes in the higher education sector outlined by President A.P.J Abdul Kalam and contained in the Vision 2010 programme of the Government.

30.12.2005 The Sangam is an association of 56 groups of children across the city, involved with Arunodhaya's initiatives, getting together to voice their rights. Their requests to the Government include checking pollution, proper drainage systems for sewage and rainwater, disposal of garbage and removal of encroachments

30.12.2005 In a big step forward to make the ambitious mid-day meal scheme for children more attractive, HRD ministry has asked state governments to mobilise mothers to monitor the cooking and feeding of the meals.

30.12.2005 As bulks of rural development outlays are employment-related, there is considerable scope for the various schemes to be streamlined and re-fashioned as an employment guarantee scheme.

30.12.2005 Moreover, all member countries have finalised sensitive lists that protect vulnerable domestic producers. The tariff reduction mandated under SAFTA will not apply on items on countries’ respective sensitive lists. India, for instance, has kept 884 tariff lines in its sensitive list for non-LDCs and 763 items inthe list for LDCs. India’s sensitive list mainly includes agricultural goods, textiles, chemicals, leather and goods reserved for small scale industries.

29.12.2005 Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited N.R. Narayana Murthy on Wednesday said corruption has become pervasive in institutions in the country and there is a strong incentive for politicians to keep people ignorant and illiterate.

29.12.2005 The government has ratified SAFTA and endorsed a tariff liberalization plan (TLP) which will drop prices of Indian as well as other South Asian goods from the next fiscal year.

29.12.2005 In Dorli village in Wardha, farmers simply put up signs announcing their whole village was for sale. It worked, with the local MP giving them Rs.10 lakh. Eslewhere, despair only deepens. Farm suicides have begun in rich Western Maharashtra, too.

29.12.2005 The former Secretary to the Government of India and Trustee of the Catalyst Trust, A.K. Venkataubramanian said that unless there is overwhelming participation from the citizens, the Right to Information Act would not succeed.

29.12.2005 Adolescence, for most, is a period of confusion, and many fall wayward due to absence of timely intervention and guidance. In an effort to make adolescents cope up with the pressures of the modern day, the Rotary Mysore Midtown conducted a programme on life skill education for adolescents recently.

29.12.2005 With the international community expressing concern about the high maternal and infant mortality in India, Union Health Ministry is looking at inter-ministerial partnerships to tackle the problem. Instead of running parallel programmes the ministry and the Department of Women and Child Development have decided to converge at the village level.

28.12.2005 With three days left to meet the deadline, the trade under South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta) among the Sarrc counties from January 1, next year is in doldrums as Sri Lanka says it will ratify Safta draft some time in April next year.

28.12.2005 Pakistan made clear on Tuesday it was not bound to offer a transit facility for trade between Afghanistan and other member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

28.12.2005 The scheme, in vogue in Anantapur district, should be implemented in Kadapa district too, the Collector said while addressing (district Rural Development Agency) DRDA district samakhya meeting here. Loans of Rs. 70 crores would be disbursed among self-help groups in the next quarter, he said.

28.12.2005 In the controversial adoption of the 500 orphans of the quake-hit Uri and Tangdhar case, the J-K High Court (HC) today directed the state government to verify credentials of the Pune based non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has adopted them.

28.12.2005 The controversy that the 104th Constitutional Amendment Bill generated nearly obscured another significant Bill: The Commission for Protection of Child Rights Bill, 2005, which was passed in Parliament. It proposes to set up a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights both at the national level and Commissions at the State level.

28.12.2005 Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Bashir Ahmed Khan has said that 20,000 quake-related cases settled by the Lok Adalats in 34 days would have taken 22 years normally.

28.12.2005 Onions, which were being sold for Rs 1,200 per quintal in Maharashtra’s wholesale markets in October, are now fetching only Rs 300 per quintal with the arrival of the Kharif and late Kharif crops.

27.12.2005 National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) appeared to be keen to re-open sick dairies in Gujarat and as part of this process, inaugurated the Junagadh Dairy here on December 24.

27.12.2005 Public investments which boost yields are falling thanks to rising subsidies, while the rising private investments actually reduce yields, through lowering of the water table, for instance.