-The Indian Express For several decades now, the Indian government and a variety of donor agencies have promoted and implemented "livelihoods projects". These projects depend upon women's self-help groups, or SHGs, to raise living standards - particularly of the 25 crore rural poor. In 2011, the Indian government launched the Rs 38,000 crore National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), also known as Ajeevika (reportedly now being merged with the Mahatma Gandhi National...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Top-notch foreign universities are looking to set foot in India to do research but not to open degree programmes, a trend local academics allege is aimed at identifying and luring away Indian talent instead of grooming it. The latest to join the bandwagon is the University of Chicago. It today announced plans for an "India Centre" in Delhi that will start operating from March and look to start...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: Karnataka, often called a "progressive state", has the highest dropout rate among Muslim students. On an average, 50,000 students from the community dropout of school each year, a majority of them at the high school level, according to a survey done by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The average dropout rate is 6.2% compared to the national average of less than 5%. "The statistics show a worrisome trend,"...

-University of Oxford Babies in a rural area of India are less likely to suffer from acute malnutrition where their families are taking part in a job-guarantee programme to provide work with a guaranteed wage, an Oxford University study has found. However, the Indian government programme appears to have no effect on long-term malnutrition. While wages earned through the scheme helped families avoid starvation when seasonal agricultural jobs were in short supply, many...

-The Hindu Equating juveniles with adult criminals is neither scientifically correct nor normatively defensible The August 31 verdict of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in the Delhi gang rape case, handing down a bare three-year custodial sentence to the juvenile member, has generated a fresh round of debate on the legality and desirability of juvenile justice itself: why should juveniles above 16 indulging in violent crimes not be treated as adult criminals?...