-Hindustan Times There’s no shortage of talent. For over two decades, women have occupied 33% of seats in panchayats and done so well that states like Bihar bumped up their Quota to 50%. Exactly 101 years after the 19th Amendment granted American women suffrage, a record 116 women, including the first Muslim, the first Native American and the youngest ever, were voted to the US Congress. India, too, has the highest number...

-The Indian Express First, it was low prices and, now, with soaring input costs, farmers may cut back on sowings Nashik/ New Delhi: During much of the current government’s tenure, Indian farmers have suffered from poor crop realisations, partly due to the crash in global agri-commodity prices after around April 2014 and aggravated by demonetisation and GST (goods and services tax) that have depressed sentiment in predominantly cash-based produce markets. One indicator...

-The Hindu A Rajasthan village is free of open defecation — on paper Behnara (Bharatpur District): The narrow village street is lined with gutters, dotted with excreta flushed out from latrines inside upper caste homes. Santa Devi pulls a corner of her sari over her mouth and begins to push the morning Quota of waste into her metal basin using only a makeshift shovel and broom. Once she has thrown the...

-TheWire.in Little can be done without a massive increase in public health expenditure and a radical revamp of the primary health infrastructure. Even by Narendra Modi’s high standards, the level of deception involved in the recent launch of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) is breath-taking: the prime minister managed to claim that PMJAY is the world’s largest health programme without making any significant financial provision for it. It may be recalled...

-Hindustan Times Bus journey takes lesser time, is more punctual and on most occasions, one can find a seat just before the vehicle departs. This is in stark contrast to the Bihar-bound trains which are often delayed by as much as 24 hours, needs a ticket to be booked months in advance and on which landing a Tatkal ticket requires monumental effort and ample luck. New Delhi: An impatient Chandan Singh does...