-PTI India continued to rank low in the Human Development Index (HDI), but climbed five notches to the 130th rank in the latest UNDP report on account of rise in life expectancy and per capita income. India ranked 130 among 188 countries in 2014 in Human Development Report 2015 released today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The country’s rank was 135 according to the 2014 report. “India’s HDI value for 2014...

-The Indian Express Government must ensure the disabilities law reaches out to the most needy The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, (PWDA) completed two decades of existence this month. However, the majority of disabled people is yet to avail the entitlements envisaged under the law. Inaccessible public places, non-accommodative educational institutions and the lack of employment opportunities for the disabled are widespread. Under Section...

-DNA Despite a certain amount of progress in the past decade or so, the report points out glaring gaps in healthcare infrastructure in the country -- "low resource allocation, low emphasis on primary health care, poor utilisation of human resources," as Professor K Srinath Reddy, one of the co-authors said. Yet another report on India's troubled health care system pointed out the country's poor performance across health indicators, despite economic advantages....

-TheNewsMinute.com The law will disproportionately affect women, and among them, Dalit women The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Haryana law which would make 83 percent of Dalit women and 71 percent of women in general ineligible to participate in grassroots democracy. The Supreme Court upheld amendments to a law that the Haryana Assembly passed earlier this year. Elections to panchayats scheduled for October were postponed after the All India Democratic Women’s Association...

-Business Standard Looking at economics behind agricultural households, a survey notes that 68.3% of such households still relied on agriculture as primary source of income Rural distress is a known story but a survey by NSSO has revealed the alarming level of fragmentation in farmland and unavailability of jobs. As many as 69 per cent agricultural households own less than a hectare of farmland each, making farming unviable and forcing migration to...