-Hindustan Times A ban on slaughter doesn’t automatically lead to a flourishing cow population, an HT analysis of government data has found, with states like Madhya Pradesh — where cow killing is outlawed — reporting a more than 40% decline in their numbers in rural areas over a decade. Between 2003 and 2013, at least nine states registered a significant decline in the ownership of cows by the rural households, according to...

-Hindustan Times “Adam’s rib is a good place to begin the Story of Creation,” says Martha Mary as tea is poured into cups in a room at a presbytery over which a brief rain is falling. “But there are two versions,” says the elderly office-bearer of a women’s wing of the Presbyterian church in Shillong. “The first version says God made Man, and the Woman comes from his rib. In another...

-Hindustan Times Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Friday tabled two bills in the Assembly, which he said would revolutionise education reform sand go along way in helping the common man.   The Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill 2015, better known as the Fee Regulation Bill, was the first to be presented. “People say that fee of a private school nowadays is more than their salaries, making private...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Eight-year-old Pihu Tiwari runs a marathon every morning with nearly 12 kilos loaded on her back. At least that’s what her walk from the school gate to her second-floor classroom feels like. She doesn’t just get tired but often pants her way up the staircase. “She is thin and weighs 29kg. And every day, she has to carry a bag to school which is almost half her weight. My...

-Hindustan Times School textbooks in recent decades have frequently become battlegrounds for ideological contestation in India. Most textbook wars are to advance majoritarian perspectives on history and culture. However, a recent very different textbook skirmish broke out about the public and private sectors in healthcare. The story of this ideological clash is bemusing and instructive, illuminating competing perspectives on the nature of education, healthcare and markets in new India. This clash surfaced...