-The Hindu     Gaps between Muslims and the national average on most human development outcomes are narrowing, reflecting their improving condition The Prime Minister's high-level Sachar Committee, which analysed the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India - based on data for the 1990s, concluded that Muslims were doing much worse than the rest of the population on most social indicators. Here, we examine how the socio-economic indicators of Muslims...

-The Hindustan Times UPA's two programmes named after India's biggest political icons --- Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru --- have failed to deliver desired outcomes, the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has said. The IEO, a body under the Planning Commission, is taking up a detailed study on the UPA's key schemes --- Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MG-NREGA) aimed at creating infrastructure...

-The Hindu The entire spectrum of political leadership should take a pledge to transform the healthcare system of India in a decade As the countdown to the next general election begins, political parties are making multiple promises to pull in votes. All the party leaders are committing to transforming the lives of people. But health, ironically, does not feature high on their priority list, even though it is the central pillar of...

-The Telegraph The Union human resource development ministry will tell the Supreme Court that private coaching institutions do not come under its jurisdiction and it cannot regulate their activities. In response to a notice issued by the apex court on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Students Federation of India, the students' wing of the CPM, the ministry is expected to make a distinction between private coaching and educational programmes...

-The United Nations The United Nations agricultural agency today launched a new database which gathers under one roof previously scattered information about land cover - how much land is covered by croplands, trees, forests, or bare soils - crucial to establishing a good global understanding of the physical characteristics of the Earth's surface. "A strong understanding of our planet's land cover is essential to promoting sustainable land resources management - including agricultural...