-The Times of India The Rio +20 summit grabbed much limelight with its focus on sustainable development this month, but a smaller event held in Hungary threw the spotlight on another equally pressing aspect of development: the challenges of urbanisation. The growing footprint of cities could very well determine the future path of sustainable development. The conference organised by the Global Development Network, an international conglomeration of researchers and institutes comes at...

-The Business Standard Census details show spread of mobiles, TVs, bank accounts, even in poverty-stricken states household power connections still a big lack The past decade has seen the weakest sections of the society make rapid gains in their material wellbeing, acquiring assets such as cell phones, televisions, two-wheelers and bank accounts, though almost half the population of scheduled castes and tribes (SC and ST) continue to live by the light...

-The Hindu Alarmed by reports of female foeticide, Rajasthan to adopt a new girl child policy Spurred by alarming reports of female foeticide continuing unabated across the State, the Rajasthan Government has initiated the process for adoption of a new girl child policy with emphasis on saving the female foetus as well as newborn girls. The policy will be the first of its kind anywhere in the country. Principal State Women & Chid...

-Live Mint Latest houselisting data demonstrates a visible growth in the material well-being of the two groups Indians, all of them, across class and caste, traded up over the past decade, a period of rapid and record economic growth—that’s the counter-intuitive message in the latest update to Census 2011. According to the so-called houselisting data released by the Census, scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) have, like the rest of the country,...

The “committee” promised by the Goalpara administration to clear the paltry sum of Rs 200 to fund midday meals in Belpara primary school in the district has not materialised yet, leaving its 40 students in the lurch. The promise came on June 12, almost a month after the May 13 abduction of the school’s headmaster, Kameshwar Rabha, and another teacher by suspected GNLA militants while they duo were riding back home...