-The Indian Express New street vendors act is welcome. But questions of hawkers' rights come down to our understanding of city spaces and people. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2014, was finally passed by the Rajya Sabha on February 19 and received presidential assent last week. This is to be lauded. Since the late 19th century, the official view has been to treat street...

-The Indian Express A state-wise break up of learning levels, however, indicates that the traditional BIMARU states have much to catch up even now compared to their southern counterparts. Even as independent surveys continue to point fingers at the quality of education being imparted in Indian schools, the National Council Of Educational Research And Training (NCERT) Friday released its National Achievement Survey (NAS) for Class III that indicated quite otherwise. Released...

-The Business Standard A sting, Operation Prime Minister, by a TV news channel had said opinion polls could be manipulated by research agencies The Election Commission (EC) of India cannot ban opinion polls ahead of elections; all it can do is remind the Union government about its long-pending request. And, this is what India's highest poll-conducting body is planning to do, following a TV news channel's sting operation code-named ‘Operation Prime Minister', which...

-The Hindu The rate of handwashing shot up from just one per cent to 37 per cent in just six months One of effective public health interventions and the most elementary hygiene ritual - washing hands - can help prevent diarrhoea that annually kills 8,00,000 children aged below five years. Yet, surveys show that handwashing remains at best "suboptimal" across the world, whether in India, Ghana, China - or even in parts...

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Probably, this can be said about the ‘Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2012', which carries the latest figures on the social sector by far. The report has provided some interesting trends in child mortality indicators for India and its bigger states during 2012 (see the links below). It says that states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which have consistently...