-Governance Now Professor Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti, a research programme of the New Delhi-based think-tank Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and one of our leading ‘election watchers', maintains that we must not read too much in the higher voting numbers and credits the election commission for preparing more accurate voter rolls. Excerpts from an interview with Trithesh Nandan: * What do you make of the phenomenon of higher turnouts? Everybody...

-Live Mint The big question is whether commitment made by Chidambaram-to contain fiscal deficit at 4.8% of GDP-will be met With the current account deficit in check, the spotlight is now on the second major macroeconomic problem that needs to be fixed: the fiscal deficit. The big question is whether commitment made by finance minister P. Chidambaram in the budget-to contain the fiscal deficit at 4.8% of gross domestic product (GDP)-will be...

-The United Nations Nearly 230 million children under the age of five have not had their births officially recorded, excluding them from education, health care and social security, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today reported. That is approximately one in three of all children under five who are unregistered or lack proof of registration, the agency said in a report released to coincide with its 67th birthday. "Birth registration is more than...

-Frontline In a situation of increasing life expectancy and crumbling traditional support structures, a universal social pension scheme that does not rely on contribution by a person or an employer can help the elderly. INDIA prides itself on being a "young" society, likely to benefit from a demographic dividend as children and young people move into working age groups over the next decade. This optimistic view assumes that society will be able...

-The Indian Express Bali: In a landmark attempt to take forward the stalled Doha Round of global trade talks, the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday evening issued a revised draft of the Bali package that would address India's concerns on food security and take through the trade facilitation agreement. The draft has proposed an interim solution with a peace clause of four years during which a permanent mechanism will have to...