An empowered ministers' panel meeting tomorrow is likely to take some decisions to tackle price rise and finalise the draft Food Security Bill, which seeks to give the poor the right to get rice and wheat at Rs 3 per kg. The empowered group of ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is scheduled to review the minimum export price (MEP) for Basmati. In the face of high food inflation, the...

A village girl in Burdwan stormed out of her wedding venue today though the rituals had been completed and, rubbing off the sindoor on her head, said she did not accept the marriage because the groom’s family was demanding a huge dowry. The boy, owner of a car rental agency, was garlanded with shoes by angry villagers and was being kept confined at a local temple along with his sister and...

The lesson from the rest of the world is that seat reservation for women to merely increase their representation in the legislature will not do; they need to be empowered in the real sense.  During the debate in Parliament and outside over the Women's Reservation Bill, many people have referred to quota “success stories” worldwide — proposing that India could gain from the experience of about 40 other countries that...

Birth gender disparity is greatest in the region China, India together account for over 85 million of the nearly 100 million “missing'' women The problem of “missing girls'' – a scenario where more boys are born than girls, as girl foetuses are presumably aborted, and women die from health and nutrition neglect – is growing in Asia Pacific. Birth gender disparity is the greatest in East Asia, where 119 boys are born...

For most, it would be a step back. But for 30-year-old Chhavi Rajawat, leaving behind corporate glamour and city life to head back to her village Soda, 60km from Jaipur, as its sarpanch has been a journey to her roots. She says she's paying her debt to the village she grew up in. A student of Rishi Valley Bangalore and Lady Shriram College, Rajawat topped up her education with a...