-Human Rights Watch New Delhi: School authorities in India persistently discriminate against children from marginalized communities, denying them their right to education, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Four years after an ambitious education law went into effect in India guaranteeing free schooling to every child ages 6 to 14, almost every child is enrolled, yet nearly half are likely to drop out before completing their elementary education. The...

-Live Mint   What explains the mystery of job growth slowing so drastically just when growth spiked up so rapidly? The health of the economy occupied the centrestage of the political battlefield this week, as the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) engaged in a spirited debate on India's economic performance. A major bone of contention was the slower pace of job growth in the UPA's 10-year...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Unfazed by the controversies surrounding issuing of Aadhaar numbers, the Union Cabinet is expected to consider on Thursday a proposal to expand the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) mandate in four states that were covered under home ministry's National Population Register (NPR). The move seems to be aimed at accelerating UPA's ambitious scheme so that the Congress-led government's direct benefit transfer can be...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: Union minister for petroleum and natural gas M Veerappa Moily on Saturday said the Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) scheme is necessary to reduce leakage of subsidy. However, he didn't say whether the government is going ahead with making the linkage compulsory as a related case is pending before the Supreme Court. On the prevailing confusion about the scheme due to a recent apex court...

-World Resources Institute India struggles with water scarcity, a problem that poses especially huge implications for the country's food security and rural livelihoods. The country has long-battled its scarcity issues through Watershed Development, a participatory approach to improve water management through afforestation and reforestation, sustainable land management, soil and water conservation, water-harvesting infrastructure, and social interventions. But while watershed development has been employed in communities throughout India, its potential long-term costs...