-The Indian Express The inequality in India’s education system gets a shot at redemption in the country’s public universities, which give students from different backgrounds a window to a more democratic future. As proposals of fee hike meet with protests, a look at how access to subsidised higher education has fuelled dreams and opened up opportunities for the disadvantaged Till three years ago, it was life as usual for Suraj Tiwari....

-The Hindu Business Line Noted Gandhian economist Dr Sudarshan Iyengar surveys the distressed agricultural landscape, pinpoints its weaknesses, and prescribes solutions with their roots in Gandhian agronomics. Edited excerpts from an interview to BusinessLine: * Given the agrarian crisis in India today, how relevant are Gandhi's economic principles based on the village economy, and equitable distribution of resources? They are relevant in the context of Gandhi's view of gram swaraj (village self-rule), which...

-TheWire.in Even more dangerously, demographically driven population regulation measures, ignore women's rights over their own bodies. The spectre of population control has emerged to haunt us yet again. The Prime Minister of India, in his Independence Day speech on the August 15, expressed concern about “population explosion creating various problems for the coming generations” and complemented those who “follow the policy of the small family” as contributing to the development of...

-The Hindu Business Line To tackle homelessness, the government should provide better incentives to developers to provide affordable housing Food, clothing and shelter are three basic human needs. Out of the three, shelter remains beyond the reach of 1.77 million people in India, accounting for 0.15 per cent of the nation’s population (Census 2011). Rights groups, however, say that the actual figure is at least three times higher. Consequently, a large number...

-TheWire.in Children born to adolescent mothers score poorly on height and weight for their age. New Delhi: Data from the fourth National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-4) surveyed 60,096 women to find what age they were at the time of their first pregnancy. It was found that 25% of these women were in the age group of 10-19 years (adolescence). Children born to adolescent mothers score poorly on height and weight for their...