-The Hindu Across the country, unless adequate jobs are created for the large labour force, the frustration of the youth is not likely to be contained. In Gujarat, the Patels or Patidars, who constitute about 15 per cent of the State’s population, are an economically and politically dominant upper caste. As successful farmers, as small and big industrialists, as traders as well as non-resident Gujaratis, spread practically all over the world, they...

-Business Standard The yet-to-be released census shows 27.65 per cent of 63.4 million households to be highly vulnerable As much as 27.65 per cent of the 63.4 million urban households in India are either homeless or are occupationally/socially vulnerable and, hence, are likely to be automatically included in a list of beneficiaries for government programmes. In contrast, the figure for rural India is 0.92 per cent of 179.1 million households, according to the...

-Down to Earth Despite being a world leader in pulses production, India has been forced to import due to crop loss and seed deficit. The sharp rise in prices is only a symptom Rani Devi, 47, is drying chickpea (chanaa daal) in Kuite Khera village of Uttar Pradesh. She intends to use them as seeds in the coming rabi season (October to December), as she is facing acute shortage of seeds....

-Economic and Political Weekly While insufficient sanitation facilities often get represented in statistics and are reported in the literature on urban infrastructure planning and contested urban spaces, what is often left out is the everyday practice and experience of going to dysfunctional toilets, particularly by women. By analysing the practices and problems associated with toilet use from a phenomenological perspective, this article aims to situate the issue in the everyday lives...

-PTI Claiming flaws in the process of identifying beneficiaries of welfare schemes based on the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data, a group of parliamentarians, intellectuals and socials activists today appealed to the Centre to take corrective measures to provide benefits to the deserving lot. In a memorandum submitted to Union Rural Development Minister Birender Singh, the members picked flaws in the process of identifying welfare schemes beneficiaries. "The clearly stated aim...