* The Planning Commission estimates the urban poor at some 80 million
* Figure for the rural poor is 120 million
* Over 98 million people migrate from rural to urban centres
* The 42nd Indian Labour Conference recommended a scheme for tackling urban unemployment
Working Plank
? CMs of states that efficiently implemented aam admi schemes were able to deliver the goods
? YSR spent Rs 5,000 crore on health. Two and a half million farmers benefited from the loan waiver.
? In BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, the Rs 3 per kg rice scheme was a big hit. NREGS implementation was good.
? In Rajasthan, development schemes brought the Congress success
Despite the Planning Commission and the PMO's objection to packaged food in government creches, women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury wrote to states in February to provide these to the children
In April she approached the Supreme Court for a directive that would make her note to the states legally binding
SEEN from the harsh, real world of the urban poor, the paper realm of dry statistical models would seem planets away. The irony is, this is an accurate map of the distance from the other end too. After innumerable studies, we still have no fix on the number of urban poor in India.
For an outpost town with little hope, it's nothing short of a miracle. Just some 20 km away from the Nepal border, Narkatiaganj village is one of Bihar's dens of extortion and kidnapping. But a bit more reassuring picture emerges when you visit its primary health centre (PHC), buzzing with activity as seven doctors attend to nearly 300 patients a day.
Wet Runs: There are 32 ongoing water projects with private sector participation, as also 22 hydro power projects with private participation. Some 20 states are undertaking water sector reforms.
Farm Woe: Net irrigated area in India is 55 mn ha against a net crop area of 142 mn ha.
Fast Dwindling: Forest cover has gone down by 1,409 sq km between 2003 and 2005.
THE Taj has been under siege from man-made elements for a long time, and in the last two decades, various prescriptions have been suggested to save it from the ravages of industrial pollution. The latest, though, has flummoxed even our normally sedate historians and conservationists. The Archaeological
