-India Today The BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is going to fight the next general elections on the development plank, and he puts forth Gujarat as the model of development. At public meetings, he has been appealing to other states and the Centre to follow his model. But the latest index released by the finance ministry may prove to be a pinprick. It shows Gujarat has not done as well...

-Press Information Bureau The India Rural Development Report 2012/13 was released here by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development, Government of India. The Report was prepared by IDFC Foundation in collaboration with network partners, the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), the Institute for Rural Management Anand (IRMA), and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), with contributions from several other researchers, experts and civil society organisations. On...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: A high-level panel has recommended new criteria for measuring the backwardness of states and proposed the devolution of funds to them through an index that identifies Odisha and Bihar as the least developed states and Goa as the most developed one. The committee had been set up by the government amid demands for "special category" status by Bihar and was headed by the then chief economic...

-The Hindustan Times Just 81 districts in India accounted for more than one-third of child mortality below five years of age in 2012 and half of these deaths were of girls, a new study published in the international journal Lancet has said. The black spots for the Indian children are widespread with even districts in well-off states like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka being...

-The Hindu Bangalore: Ninety-two-year-old midwife Narasamma from Krishnapura village of Pavagada taluk has been chosen for a national award for carrying out 1,500 deliveries in remote areas. Announcing this at a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday, Minister of State for Women and Child Welfare Umashree said the award being given by the Union government on the International Day of Older Persons on October 1 in New Delhi carries a cash prize...