A recent study finds that selective abortion of girls, especially for pregnancies after a firstborn girl, has increased substantially in India. CENSUS 2011, which brought out several positive features with regard to education, literacy and fertility rates, also confirmed the disturbing trend that had been reported for the first time in the 1991 Census – the increasing gap between the figures for male and female children in the 0-6 age...

-The Hindu   On Tuesday, India signed a deal for a $1-billion loan from the World Bank to clean up the Ganga. Just a day earlier, in a tragic coincidence, a 34-year old swami died after a four month-long hunger strike, protesting the mining mafia illegally quarrying in the river. Besieged with questions about Swami Nigamanand's death at the official function to sign the World Bank deal, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh blamed...

Right to education (RTE) in Karnataka is likely to remain circumscribed even after July 5, the day fixed by the state government to implement the RTE Act. The implementation is certain to run into a plethora of problems as the state is waiting for a response from the Centre on sharing the financial burden of enforcing the law. Primary and secondary education minister Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri said, “We have brought the...

Whether it is in education, health or jobs, there are enormous differences in outcomes in modern India, so much so that it often seems like two countries exist within one. Economic opportunities have undoubtedly expanded for a section of India's population, but there are serious obstacles in the path of many. Nobel laureate and development economist Amartya Sen has written about the 'conversion handicap' which, quite separately from an 'earnings...

-The Hindustan Times   Female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking make India the world's 4th most dangerous country for women, with Afghanistan's violence and poverty taking it to the top spot, followed by Congo due to horrific levels of rape, a Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll said on Wednesday. Pakistan and Somalia ranked third and fifth, respectively, in the global survey of perceptions of threats ranging from domestic abuse and economic discrimination...