-The Hindu Anger and frustration dominate discussions on demonetisation at a jan sunwai in Beawar, Rajasthan About five-six hundred people are crowded in and around a small shamiana-covered triangle, like the apex of the letter A. The two arms of the A are busy streets typical of small-town India, a press of pedestrians and two-wheelers punctuated with foraging cows, goats and impatient cars and tempos. Including the shopkeepers and hangers-on across the...

Although corruption touches every section of the Indian society, there are very few complaints made against bribery or corrupt people. How can one explain this contradiction? Is it the case that the laws relating to corruption are so weak and toothless in our country that people seldom rely on them to get justice? Recent research based on data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) confirms the above-mentioned fact. Please click...

-The Hindu While hypertension and cardiovascular disease are significantly associated with increased risk of renal failure deaths, diabetes is the leading factor Deaths from renal failure among Indian adults now outstrip deaths from HIV/AIDS, signalling a major shift in causes of mortality in the country over the past decade — away from infectious disease causes to non-communicable disease causes. These are the results of a study published recently in The Lancet. As per...

-Down to Earth Collective rights to undo historic injustice meted out to indigenous people remain completely ignored by the states, says Citizens’ report Ten years after the historic Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed by the Indian lawmakers, only three per cent of villages or communities could secure their rights over forest resources which include land and the produce from the forests and water, states the Citizens’ Report prepared by Community...

-The Indian Express A report on air quality, released during the conference, said Varanasi and Allahabad have not seen a single ‘good’ air quality day in the past one year. Varanasi: Burning agricultural residue doesn’t just bring down air quality, but also leads to longer spells of dense fog, scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur have concluded. While the concentration of oxidised organic carbon that is produced after burning biomass —...