Ashish Bose is a veteran demographer whose expertise in analysing population data persuaded the former Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi to make him an advisor on issues ranging from urbanisation to poverty alleviation. He is best known for coining the term Bimaru (shorthand for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) for states with the worst socio-economic indicators. An author of 24 books, he is now working on a...

-Rediff.com Press Council Chairman Justice Markandey Katju on Saturday said anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare lacks the scientific ideas that are needed to solve the problem of graft. The PCI chairman also took a dig at the media for "hyping" up issues such as the 100th century of Sachin Tendulkar, retirement of Rahul Dravid, pregnancy of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and death of film star Dev Anand. "This Anna Hazare movement, I have not spoken...

The Economic Survey 2011-12 showcases the dividends of economic liberalisation started by the ruling party. But admits: growth is not possible without agriculture During the last financial year there were talks of the Indian economy finally decoupling from agriculture thus monsoon. The Economic Survey of 2011-12 disagrees with that. The survey has re-emphasised that whatever economic growth happened in the last fiscal it was due to agricultural growth. India recorded the...

Sounding a note of caution, the Economic Survey has stressed that for “growth to be inclusive” India must create adequate employment opportunities—a call that underlines existing inequality, including urban-rural income disparity, and concern that it may increase as more young people enter the job market. While India’s unemployment rate has dropped from 8.2% in 2004-05 to 6.6% in 2009-10, the number of jobless is still huge in absolute terms. The...

Closed mines and resultant unemployment are still stoking Naxalism in Saranda, a maiden jan adalat (public hearing) held 160km from the steel city insisted today, indicating that more needed to be done to make the much-touted central action plan for the red turf a long-lasting success. More than 1,000 villagers from the Maoist dens of Noamundi, Gua, Kiriburu and Barajamda among others, which fall in the mining belt of Saranda command...