-The Hindu     The state must remain in higher education as the private sector is yet to demonstrate its capacity to create knowledge on a sufficient scale The impending inauguration of a new government finds interested parties bringing into the public arena matters of importance to them. One of the issues that has been raised recently is whether higher education in India should be privatised. This question merits serious attention. And though interest...

-Live Mint   India had the highest number of maternal deaths according to the latest UN report   New Delhi: India had the highest number of maternal deaths, accounting for almost a fifth of the global total in 2013, according to the latest UN report.   In 2013, maternal deaths in India stood at 50,000, or 17% of such deaths across the world, the report said. Global maternal mortality has, however, dropped 45% in 2013 compared...

-The New York Times   As politicians scramble for India's 815 million votes in the most expensive and closely contested general election in the nation's history, an unexpected protest is rumbling from what was once one of the country's most placid voter blocs: its farmers. The protest is inflamed by rising attention to the shocking suicide rate on India's hardscrabble farms. Since 1995, more than 290,000 farmers have killed themselves. Though that figure,...

-News-Medical.net   A new study has found that India's shocking rates of suicide are highest in areas with the most debt-ridden farmers who are clinging to tiny smallholdings - less than one hectare - and trying to grow 'cash crops', such as cotton and coffee, that are highly susceptible to global price fluctuations. The research supports a range of previous case studies that point to a crisis in key areas of India's agriculture...

-The Times of India   Sometimes, a shard of reality can raise serious doubts about what looks like a grand feat. A small study of water samples from urban and rural households declared as getting drinking water from "improved" sources has shown that about 42% of urban and 60% of rural households were actually getting contaminated water. About half of the surveyed anganwadis where small children and pregnant mothers were taken care...