-The Telegraph Unesco has declared the Western Ghats a World Heritage site, capping a six-year campaign, but another Indian nomination on the “hill forts of Rajasthan” tripped because of inadequacies in documentation. The recognition for the ghats came despite a recommendation against their inclusion by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an advisory panel that assesses entries for special ecological zones. The ICUN concluded that the five states through which the...

-PTI Every four minutes, one person takes his own life in this country and one in every five suicides is that of a housewife. This and other startling figures are part of a government report 'Accidental Deaths and Sucides in India 2011' released here recently. According to the report, the number of suicides have increased in 2011 by 0.7% to touch 1,35,585 compared to 1,34,599 in the previous year. West Bengal has reported the...

-The Times of India Divorce, "illegitimate pregnancy" and professional/ career problems seem to be pushing more people to commit suicide. According to the NCRB report, in 2011, at least 16 people committed suicide every hour and the total figure was 1.35 lakh. While family problems accounted for almost one-fourth of suicides, illness was another major reason. Interestingly, suicides due to divorce and "illegitimate pregnancy" saw a rise of 54% and 20%...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Nithin Gollamudi, a city student dreams to be a doctor and secretly wants to be the state topper in medical entrance examination. Belonging to an economically and socially backward family, the 12-year-old who was helping his father in a masonry shop in Chotuppal till two years ago even while going to a nearby government school says that it would have been impossible for him to dream...

The State finds a handy tool in a colonial law to quell dissent Wrong Arm Of The Law   Why ‘sedition’ rings hollow in India 2012 The law Section 124(A) of the Indian Penal Code, 1870; non-bailable offence The definition Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government...