NAGPUR: A frail looking lady Kalawati Bandurkar from Vidharba, who was referred to by Rahul Gandhi, is facing a tough time as her Jalka village is faced by 12-hour power shortage.

Kalawati is so poor that she cannot afford to get power connection in her house. Living in abject poverty, Kalawati finds it difficult to even meet both the ends.

This is the woman Rahul Gandhi spoke about in his speech during the trust motion in the lower house of the Parliament.

The government needs to learn from the hundreds of farmers who, right in the so-called suicide zones of Vidarbha, have initiated efforts for debt-free, low-cost, environment-friendly farming practices, says Bharat Dogra

COMMERCE minister Kamal Nath has reiterated that flexibilities for developing countries in the Doha round of talks must be adequate and appropriate for addressing the sensitivities of individual members. There can be no caveats such as number and trade volume limitations as proposed by the US to the usage of these flexibilities, he said at a meeting with World Trade Organisation director general Pascal Lamy in Geneva.

For the past four years, Badrinath, a landless farmer of Nalai village, has been moving for pillar to post to get his name included in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list, but to no avail.

With nine members of his family on the verge of starvation, he approached the authorities concerned to issue him a BPL card, but the officials expressed their helplessness in doing so.