-The Hindu The political scientist on the danger to India’s checks and balances, and the perils of the democratisation of mediocrity in universities Professor of political science and a holder of the Madan Lal Sobti Chair, Devesh Kapur has been director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary India at University of Pennsylvania since 2006. Mr. Kapur, who recently co-edited Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design, says our public universities...

-Hindustan Times It’s a paradoxical fact. Families become smaller as better nutrition, vaccination and healthcare ensure couples lose fewer children to malnutrition and infections, such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, sepsis and tuberculosis India’s most comprehensive report card on health released earlier this year shows India’s total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped from an average of 2.7 children per women in 2006 to 2.2 a decade later. Around two in three states that are...

-IndiaSpend/ Hindustan Times Mumbai’s high malnutrition figures are despite the fact that 83% of government and aided schools in Mumbai city and 95.1% in its suburbs have a midday meal programme. Mumbai’s Colaba is well known for its art deco buildings, the Gateway of India, swish pubs and restaurants, and the pleasant promenade of Marine Drive. It houses the state assembly, Vidhan Bhavan, and the state secretariat, Mantralaya. However, this high-profile ward recorded...

-VillageSquare.in The problem of male cattle in India, the world’s largest milk-producing country, remains in limbo even as farmers grapple with latest government regulations that severely restrict cattle trade and culling Alpesh Patel, a small farmer in Mogari village of Anand district in Gujarat, owns three crossbreed female cattle and earns supplemental income by selling milk to the nearest dairy co-operative. He strives to keep his herd efficient for milk production by...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A summer rise in ozone, an air pollutant, over the National Capital Region should stimulate health protection measures and serve as an alert to other Indian cities, the non-government Centre for Science and Environment said today. The CSE has, using Central Pollution Control Board data, identified spikes in ozone levels persisting longer with the advance of summer. The share of days violating the pollution board's standard of 100...