-The Times of India New Delhi: They may be some of the most backward states in the country, but when it comes to women empowerment these states have topped the charts and are well ahead of their more prosperous counterparts like Gujarat, Punjab, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. One of the parameters to judge women empowerment is by knowing how many are functioning as elected representatives. The government data on elected women...

-The Times of India New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) will not return RTI appeals and complaints merely on account of non-submission of photo ID of the applicant. RTI rules do not specifically provide for furnishing of photo identity document along with appeals and complaints, minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions Jitendra Singh said in response to a written question in Rajya Sabha. "However, in compliance with directions of...

-The Hindu The average rural Indian household is a marginal landowner, growing mainly cereals on a small patch of land and reliant on groundwater for irrigation, new official data show. Over 80 per cent of rural households have marginal landholdings of less than one hectare (10,000 square metres) and just seven per cent own more than two hectares, data on household land ownership from the National Sample Survey Office show. Tribal people are...

-The Asian Age It’s a huge story. And it’s not getting the kind of media attention it deserves. It’s a story about India’s farmers. It’s a story about the ongoing agrarian crisis in the country in the wake of two successive years of drought. If one looks only at the figures of growth of gross domestic product which tend to make headlines in financial publications, there’s no story for agriculture comprises...

-The Hindu Business Line Indian corporates are just settling in to the regime of mandatory spends on CSR activities. The Centre has so far been lenient and has allowed them to spend less than the required amount as long as they disclose the reason. Many companies, which have fallen short, have listed a variety of reasons for this short-fall. This varies from the need for more time to identifying the right CSR...