Census 2011 has brought glad tidings on the literacy front. Delhi's literacy rate - recorded as 86.34% - has gone up by 4.67% in comparison to Census 2001, which recorded a literacy rate of 81.67%. One of the significant developments is the narrowing of the gap between male and female literacy rate - a drop of 2.53% - which is also the highest dip recorded so far. The difference between...

The provisional census 2011 has recorded the population of Arunachal Pradesh at 13,82,611, comprising 7,20,232 males and 6,62,379 females. According to to the latest census, the state has registered an overall Growth of 25.92% during 2001-2011. The Growth rate is higher than the national average of 17.64%. The state has added 2,84,643 persons in the decade. Papum Pare came up as the most populous district with 1,76,385 population followed by Changlang...

For the first time in five decades, Uttar Pradesh has witnessed a decline in the decadal Growth rate of its population. According to the data released by the Directorate of Census Operations in Lucknow on Tuesday, the state has registered a decrease of 5.76 per cent, with its population Growth coming down from 25.85 per cent in 1991-2001 to 20.09 per cent in 2001-11. However, Uttar Pradesh with its population...

Many Indians eat poorly. Would a “right to food” help? “LOOK at this muck,” says 35-year-old Pamlesh Yadav, holding up a tin-plate of bilious-yellow grains, a mixture of wheat, rice and mung beans. “It literally sticks in the throat. The children won’t eat it, so we take it home and feed it to the cows.” Mrs Yadav has brought her children to a state-run nursery in Bhindusi village in rural Rajasthan. The...

Cash transfer as substitute for state service provision is a dangerous recipe for callously anti-poor and corrupt governance. THE staggering number of recent articles, papers and books on the virtues of giving cash in place of public services to the poor has created an impression that a sort of epidemic has broken out. Economists, policymakers, bureaucrats and newspaper commentators are all infected by it and are in turn infecting others. The central...