-PTI Melbourne: India has been ranked at a poor 115 by a global survey which looked into the level of economical empowerment of women in 128 countries.  The list was topped by Australia and followed by three Scandinavian countries -- Norway, Sweden and Finland.  At the bottom of the list were Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan and Chad.  The research done by an international consulting and management firm Booz & Company ranked India at 115 and...

-The Times of India The Centre has advised Naxal-hit states not to release hardened Maoist fighters as part of swap deals with red ultras, who have increasingly been using high-profile abductions to further their subversive activities. However, it has said that negotiations and low-value releases can be considered for the safety and release of hostages. The draft hostage policy, which will be discussed at a meeting of chief secretaries/DGPs of nine Naxalism-affected...

-The Economic Times Retail sector liberalisation has been revived and included in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's package of big-bang reforms announced recently. This was to be expected as an element of the package since the influential minister Jairam Ramesh, who has access to Sonia Gandhi and is identified with her NGO-dominated set of advisers whose Knowledge of economics is outweighed by their enthusiasm, had already announced his conversion to retail sector...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: Despite denials of wrongdoing in a trust for disabled people that Union law minister Salman Khurshid and his wife operate, it now appears that there was a letter with the forged signature of a senior UP government official that allowed the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment to release the second tranche of funds in March 2011 — Rs 68 lakh — to the Zakir...

-The Times of India Four UN agencies urged India to take "incremental action" to fight the scourge of child marriages in the country on Thursday when the first International Day of the Girl Child was observed across the world. The focus of the first observance of the day is on child marriage. In a letter to Union minister of women and child development Krishna Tirath, heads of four UN agencies in India...