-Frontline Is there a shift in the attitude of Kerala society towards the value of daughters? Is son preference spreading in a State once known to be above extreme gender bias? A recent study on child sex ratio generates more questions than it answers. By R. KRISHNAKUMAR in Thiruvananthapuram ABORTION of female foetuses after parents learn of their gender using medical diagnostic techniques is believed to be one of the central reasons...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: From Mamata Banerjee's backyard in Harish Chatterjee Street to Contai in East Midnapore, a contagion of protests is spreading in several parts of Bengal. Funds collection agents of the Saradha Group are besieging the seats of power with appeals to step in and avert a run on the chit fund-fuelled company since the Trinamul government was seen as the undeclared gilt-edged guarantor during the good times. Trinamul lent credence to...

-The Hindu     13 tribal children have died in Attappady of Palakkad district this year Palakkad: Kerala's claims to world fame for its high human development indices appear to be tottering with children in the tribal heartland of Attappady in Palakkad district dying of malnutrition. In the last 15 months, as many as 29 children died of malnutrition, 13 of them this year. Two more deaths were reported from the area over the past...

-The Hindu     This demographic potential offers India and its economy an unprecedented edge Every third person in an Indian city today is a youth. In about seven years, the median individual in India will be 29 years, very likely a city-dweller, making it the youngest country in the world. India is set to experience a dynamic transformation as the population burden of the past turns into a demographic dividend, but the benefits...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...