Here is a new set of official statistics that can escalate the politically contentious debate on what constitutes the poverty line. If the average monthly consumption expenditure is taken as the benchmark of what an individual needs to survive, the poverty linewould be Rs 66.10 for urban areas and Rs 35.10 for rural regions, while about 65% of the population will be below this cutoff. The figures, based on the 66th round...

For not paying compensation to the kin of the victims The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar to appear personally before it on June 11, if the State government fails to take action on the compensation recommended for endosulfan victims in Kasaragod district. The Chief Secretary should file an action-taken report on the commission's recommendations before June 4, failing which he will have to appear before it....

-The Deccan Chronicle Army units are currently undergoing jungle warfare training in naxal-affected Chhattisgarh, even as the Union government’s policy of not deploying the Army for anti-naxal operations anywhere in the country still remains in place. The jungle warfare training is currently on at the Narainpur Manoeuvre Range in South Chhattisgarh. In recent years, the Army has been boosting its presence in Chhattisgarh through plans — approved earlier by the Union...

Over 250 activists, academics, intellectuals and democratic institutions have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh demanding that medical attention be immediately provided to Adivasi school teacher, Soni Sori, who is currently in custody in Raipur Central Jail. NAC members Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze and Harsh Mander, poet Meena Kandaswamy and film-maker Anand Patwardhan are amongst the signatories to the letter. The text of the open letter...

-The Hindu ‘Most cancer deaths are preventable if detected early' Contrary to the perception that cancer mortality is higher in urban areas, a recent study published in The Lancet said the death rate is similar in both urban and rural areas. The study, pointing to an interpretation that literacy can prevent cancer deaths, said mortality rates were two times higher in the least-educated than in the most-educated adults. Conducted between 2001 and 2003 —...