-The United Nations The goal of reducing by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water has been achieved, well ahead of the 2015 deadline for reaching the globally agreed development targets aimed at ridding the world of extreme poverty, hunger and preventable diseases, the United Nations said today. Between 1990 and 2010, over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and...

India's top business and technology schools are struggling to keep pace with the growing gender diversity aspirations of big employers in India Inc.  Women students at IITs have almost doubled to 11% in five years and their numbers at two B-schools - ISB-Hyderabad (29%) and IIM-Kozhikode (36%) - are inching closer to Harvard Business School (39%). Yet, recruiters complain there still aren't enough women graduates to untangle the diversity labyrinth at...

-Reuters The Indian government has no plans to buy farmland abroad or help private companies do so, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said on Monday, after a local media report said New Delhi was debating the issue. “There is no government proposal. The ministry has not taken up this proposal,” Pawar told reporters. The Economic Times had in its Monday edition quoted the ministry’s top civil servant, farm secretary P K Basu, saying it...

The Bill governing the unique identity project is unlikely to be introduced in the budget session of parliament, as the Planning Commission needs more time to finalise its revised version.  The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) Bill, which aims to give legal status to the collection of biometric data and issue of unique identification numbers to all resident Indians, was rejected by a parliamentary committee last year.  "There are many issues...

Women farmers suffer gross bias a global meet will look to change this Nearly half of the agricultural work is handled by women in developing countries and India is no exception. Yet, strategies for the development of agriculture are directed primarily at men. Barely five per cent of the extension efforts and resources are targeted at farm women. This failing, predictably, costs a good amount owing to loss of a part...