Distribution of basic food grains and fuel at controlled prices every month through the Public Distribution System (PDS) could be the largest service provided by the Indian State, touching as it does over 65 million families through a network of nearly half a million retail shops. Given that the urban middle class has little stake in the health of the PDS, there have to be some compelling reasons for the...
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Male-female literacy gap highest in Rajasthan
The provisional data of Census 2011 for the state shows the districts of Churu and Barmer with negative growth in literacy. While Churu's literacy rate has fallen from 67.59% to 67.46%, Barmer reported a much higher drop from 58.99% to 57.49%. Director, Census Operations, Rajasthan Shubra Singh pointed out that in the Census 2001, none of the districts had reported negative growth. The state also holds the dubious distinction of having...
More »Rajasthan reports dismal gender ratio
Rajasthan has failed its girl children on two counts. Not only has it failed to protect them, it has also been unsuccessful in educating them, according to the Census figures released on Monday. The child sex ratio (number of females for every 1,000 male children in 0-6 age group) has dropped sharply to 883 from 909 in 2001 and the state reports the lowest female literacy rate at 52.66%. Expressing concern...
More »Delhi's population grows slowest in 100 yrs by Rukmini Shrinivasan
Adding just 30 lakh people in the last 10 years, Delhi experienced its slowest population growth in almost a century. The decadal growth rate of 21% was less than half the figure of 47% for the previous decade. Census officials attributed this to a combination of declining fertility and mass slum demolitions. Provisional district-level data released by Varsha Joshi, director of census operations for NCT, on Monday said this is the...
More »Can Centre fix NREGS wages in isolation? by M Rajshekhar
Sometime this month, Justice N Ramamohana Rao of the Andhra Pradesh High Court will deliver a verdict that will directly impact earnings of the 114 million people who work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Central government's work guarantee programme. The verdict will also indirectly impact earnings of the 400 million workers and labourers who toil in India's factories and fields for 'minimum wages'. The question Justice Rao...
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