-PTI NEW DELHI/GENEVA: Indicating a poor state of affairs on gender parity front, India was today ranked at a low 101st position on a global Gender Gap Index despite an improvement by four places since last year. The index, compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), has ranked 136 countries on how well resources and opportunities are divided between men and women in four broad areas of economy, education, politics, education and...

-Reuters The finance minister is finding it harder and harder to meet the government's budget promises and may sweep as much as $15 billion in subsidy costs into next year's accounts to ensure he hits fiscal targets ahead of the Lok Sabha, ministry officials say. Finance minister, P Chidambaram, insists that the fiscal deficit target of 4.8% of GDP for the year to March 31, 2014, is a red line that will...

-Newsclick.in Recent studies have shown that even as India fares better than many developing regions of the world on several indicators of growth and development such as GDP, per capita, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), literacy, life expectancy, etc., the number of malnourished children in India is significantly high. What explains this paradox? The Union Cabinet recently approved a multi-sectoral nutritional programme proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to reduce...

-The Hindustan Times The level of food insecurity in India remains stubbornly high for a country that has experienced more than a decade of strong growth, attained robust levels of agricultural production and is a net exporter of food. So the widening gap between the country's economic confidence and the hunger that besets so many of its citizenry is a matter of concern. In the book Feeding India: Livelihoods, entitlements and capabilities,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Agricultural GDP is likely to grow by over 5% this year thanks to the most abundant rains in nearly two decades, a government thinktank has forecast. If the prediction turns out right, it could help tame food inflation, provide a much-needed boost to rural incomes and a knock-on effect on other sectors of the economy. The demand for two-wheelers, tractors and mobiles, in particular, could rise...