At a time when economic wisdom is seen as lying in allowing unrestrained play of economic power and cutting social sector spending, here is a report emphasising the economic sense in addressing hunger, especially child malnutrition. It also brings out the positive impact of employment guarantee scheme, which has been a thrust area of the UPA government but has seen a cut in allocation in Budget proposals for 2012-13. The report...

India’s decision-makers seem to find it difficult to see that there are children in the country. Being unable to see them, they are unable to perceive that they are hungry. In an age when we are able to use euphemisms like ‘under-nutrition’, this is perhaps not surprising. But it is disgraceful none the less.   This country has a large population of children. Fortyone per cent of its total numbers. The national...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday started hearing the debate on legality of decriminalising same sex behaviour in private among consenting adults by asking contestants whether the “order of nature” changes with time. The court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging a Delhi High Court judgment on July 2, 2009, which ruled that sexual intercourse among adults of the same sex is not a criminal offence under Section 377 of the...

Mohammad Aamir had just turned 18, when one February day in 1998, he was ambushed by a police van. A month later, he found himself thrown against the cold, forbidding walls of a prison cell in the capital's Tihar jail. The charges were murder, terrorism and waging war against the nation. Aamir, released in January this year after 14 years, was named the main accused in 20 low-intensity bomb blasts executed...

Goa and Kerala seem to be the best place to be born in India, while Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha are the worst. According to the latest Union health ministry data, Goa recorded the lowest infant mortality rate - 10 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, followed by Kerala at 13. MP recorded the highest IMR at 62, followed by UP (61) and Odisha (61).  MP, which has the highest IMR,...