The global youth unemployment rate is at a record high and is expected to climb even higher as the year progresses, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) announced today. According to a new report, of the world’s 620 million economically active youth between the ages of 15 and 24, 81 million were out of work at the end of 2009, the highest number ever. The youth unemployment rate climbed from 11.9...

A higher order of political leadership, a transparent and accountable bureaucracy and activist citizen forums are imperative for effectively addressing hunger and poverty in India, N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies, said on Sunday. Addressing a policy forum at the international conference on “Eliminating hunger and poverty” hosted by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Mr. Murthy said the dark side of India's growth story had been...

EVERY OTHER day there is either a newspaper report or an editorial comment lamenting the loss of food grain stored in buffer stocks. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, while prophesying a bumper kharif crop, admits he is worried about not having adequate storage for the produce. At a national conference in 2003, the Central Warehousing Corporation said it had covered storage capacity for 48 million tonnes of food grain. In 2002,...

A woman, as everyone knows, usually gives birth to a baby after nine months of pregnancy, but in Bihar 298 women claim to have delivered two to five children in a span of 60 days - at least that's what records of incentives amount given to new mothers under a government scheme show. A woman gets around Rs.1,000 when she gives birth under the government's Janani Suraksha Yojana but a...

The father of slain RTI activist Amit Jethwa, who was shot dead by two motorcyclists near Gujarat High Court last night, has accused Junagadh MP Dinu Solanki of plotting his son’s murder and demanded a CBI inquiry. Amit, 33, had been running a campaign against illegal mining in the Gir forest that his father claims was controlled by Solanki. “Two years ago, Solanki threatened me on the phone, telling me that he...