-The Hindu Nine amendments have been adopted. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, popularly known as the land bill, was adopted by the Lok Sabha after debating it for two days. Congress and Biju Janata Dal walked out ahead of the voting, to protest the removal of a clause that makes it mandatory to get farmers' consent prior to the acquisition of land...

-The Hindu Delhi, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are India's best-ranked States in terms of gender-related education indicators, new data from the Ministry of Human Resource Development and UNICEF, shows. Using district-level indicators of girls' education, health and social disadvantages, the government aims to identify the most backward pockets of the country, requiring the most attention. "Earlier, we used to look at the gender gap in indicators, and this is narrowing. However this,...

-Frontline Kerala is facing a situation where health care costs are leading more and more people, not just low-income families, to financial distress. KERALA is once again drawing attention to itself, this time for a persistent trend of a large number of households being pushed into financial ruin because of the expenses incurred for medical care. Several studies have now found evidence for the many facets of this worrying development in a...

-The Hindu While the rates of sexual violence in India - both reported in official statistics and unreported on the basis of household surveys - are towards the lower end of the global spectrum, data on women's autonomy in India indicate that there is a hidden emergency Having opened up a fresh conversation about the situation of women since the December 16, 2012 gang rape, has India done enough to address the...

-PTI The scheme can have a negative impact on prices, productivity: FICCI-KPMG New Delhi: After the Prime Minister's referred to MGNREGA as a "monument to the failure of the UPA regime", comes a report blaming it for creating shortage of farm labour. A Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)-KMPG report titled ‘Labour in Indian Agriculture: A Growing Challenge', released here on Wednesday, says schemes, such as the Mahatma Gandhi National...