-Hindustan Times Arsenic contamination is spreading fast in 12 states and beyond, with around one lakh people already dead and the chemical entering the food chain through farm products in the region, a committee of secretaries in a report to the government has said. The committee has also estimated that 7.04 crore people have been affected, with around three lakh people having arsenic-related diseases in the country. Of them, the report said,...

  Seven journalists from English and Hindi media from Delhi, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have been selected for the prestigious Inclusive Media-UNDP Fellowships 2015. The fellows will take time off from routine journalism to spend time with rural/ marginalized communities to highlight their anxieties and concerns that require wider coverage and public attention. The fellowships cover costs of news gathering, logistics and incidental expenses up to Rs 150,000. The...

-Hindustan Times A group of Delhi University students is arranging professional training for over 20 transgender people to help make them financially independent.   The group of students from Ramjas College have roped in experts to train members of the transgender community in jewellery making under a project called ‘Transcreation’.   “We contacted some NGOs who work with transgender community and started working with them. We want to empower the community and for that the...

-Hindustan Times A ban on slaughter doesn’t automatically lead to a flourishing cow population, an HT analysis of government data has found, with states like Madhya Pradesh — where cow killing is outlawed — reporting a more than 40% decline in their numbers in rural areas over a decade. Between 2003 and 2013, at least nine states registered a significant decline in the ownership of cows by the rural households, according to...

-Hindustan Times “Adam’s rib is a good place to begin the Story of Creation,” says Martha Mary as tea is poured into cups in a room at a presbytery over which a brief rain is falling. “But there are two versions,” says the elderly office-bearer of a women’s wing of the Presbyterian church in Shillong. “The first version says God made Man, and the Woman comes from his rib. In another...