-The Hindu Identifying 37 per cent - or about 60,000 square km - of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive, a high-level panel has recommended that "destructive" activities such as mining, thermal power, major construction, and some hydel power projects should not be allowed there. However, the panel was silent about any restrictions in the remaining 96,000 square km area, thus creating the perception that it had diluted earlier recommendations that the...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-Rising Kashmir Jammu, Apr 14: Despite liberal funding from Government of India for its popular scheme of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), state government has failed to complete 34886 works since its inception from 2007. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report of 2011-12 found that the number of works taken up for execution each year had been very high and the number of incomplete works...

-The Indian Express Chandigarh: Call it fear of social ostracism, or lack of belief in law and order machinery, more and more reports of sexual assault victims trying to kill self are coming to light in Haryana. In the last four months, at least six such cases have been reported where the victims of sexual harassment, including molestation, stalking and rape, have attempted suicide. In the most recent incident, a Karnal based woman...

The ongoing droughts and water crises in Maharashtra and Gujarat point to the multiple conflicts the beleaguered and scarce resource of water is likely to spark in the coming years. India is today the world’s largest consumer of groundwater, but it is clear that how we extract, harvest, distribute and manage our most precious resource cannot proceed along usual lines. The unsustainable over-extraction is heralding a fall in the water-table and...