-The Indian Express The residents of Nimkheda, a small settlement of 1,674 people in Haryana’s Mewat district, are visibly unsettled and worried Nimkheda (Mewat, Haryana): Dressed in a white salwar-kameez, her dupatta wrapped as a headscarf, an upset Ashubi Khan (55) thumped her right palm with her fist as she spoke in Mewati. “My illiteracy is not my fault, but a reflection of the state’s failure to fulfil its responsibilities. Did our...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's traditionally wet northeastern region has experienced a higher frequency of drought than arid western India over the past 15 years, researchers have said, cautioning that this trend has implications for crop productivity in the region. An analysis of the summer monsoon rainfall since 2000 has shown that the probability of drought was 54 per cent in the northeastern region and 27 per cent in the traditionally arid...

-DNA Despite a certain amount of progress in the past decade or so, the report points out glaring gaps in healthcare infrastructure in the country -- "low resource allocation, low emphasis on primary health care, poor utilisation of human resources," as Professor K Srinath Reddy, one of the co-authors said. Yet another report on India's troubled health care system pointed out the country's poor performance across health indicators, despite economic advantages....

-Livemint.com A NSSO report shows there are significant caste-based differences in economic status of agricultural households in India New Delhi: Social divisions in India’s countryside are a well-established fact. A National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report released last week shows there are significant caste-based differences in economic status of agricultural households in India. Unsurprisingly, lower castes are the worst-off by most yardsticks. A large majority of India’s farmers are finding it difficult...

-TheNewsMinute.com The law will disproportionately affect women, and among them, Dalit women The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Haryana law which would make 83 percent of Dalit women and 71 percent of women in general ineligible to participate in grassroots democracy. The Supreme Court upheld amendments to a law that the Haryana Assembly passed earlier this year. Elections to panchayats scheduled for October were postponed after the All India Democratic Women’s Association...