-The Hindu The murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri should come as no surprise to those who have been closely following the ground level Politics in western Uttar Pradesh. The murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, on the edge of the national capital, by a violent Hindu mob on Wednesday should come as no surprise to those who have been closely following the ground level Politics in western Uttar Pradesh and the...

-Hindustan Times Patna: Guns and goons have played a key role in Bihar’s Politics for decades. As the eastern state heads to the polls next month, outlaws with itchy trigger fingers as well as ‘baahubalis’, or strongmen, are back in the frame. Dozens of erstwhile gangsters have found their way into mainstream Politics either directly or through spouses and relatives. Some of them will not contest the polls, but their influence can...

-Livemint.com Data from National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 2011 round shows that domestic workers fare worse in comparison with others employed in the informal sector Mumbai: On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke down at a Facebook Inc. townhall recalling his mother’s toil as a domestic help. For decades, the poor condition of domestic workers has been a reality in India. Data from the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 2011 round shows that...

The country has made significant gains in raising the rate of exclusive breastfeeding among infants from 46 to 65 percent between 2005-06 and 2013-14. This has been revealed by the 2015 Global Nutrition Report, which was released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in September. The report has quoted preliminary data on nutrition, which was collected via the Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) in 29 states by the...

-Economic and Political Weekly After coming to power in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance government took several measures to dilute the pro-poor provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. Though it has backed down, several questions remain over the way the Modi government has dealt with the issue of land acquisition. Santosh Verma (santosh.econ@gmail.com) is at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. Land acquisition—by private corporations or the state—has raised vital...