-The Hindu Are differences within the middle class, in income, education, and cultural and social capital, so wide as to render moot any ideological or behavioural coherence to this group? The rapid growth of the Indian economy over the past three decades has led to a substantial expansion of India's "middle class". This has triggered a robust debate over who in India actually belongs to the "middle class," its size, composition, and...

-The Indian Express Three members of a Dalit family in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar were killed, one of them decapitated before being thrown into a dry well in Jawkhede Khalsa village, on the night of October 20. The investigation is still on and the jury out on whether it was an act of caste violence or the result of a dispute. In recent times, however, it seems there is a surge in the...

-Business Standard India's mixed record on the Millennium Development Goals is a pointer to policy priorities In 2000, the United Nations held a Millennium Summit, at which the membership adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Spanning a range of development indicators - poverty, gender, health, education and the environment - the MDGs essentially established a set of targets for the global community to achieve by 2015. The framework sets eight broad...

-The Hindu A survey commissioned by the Ministry of Human Resource Development simplistically records poverty and academic disinterest as major reasons for children dropping out of school. A survey commissioned by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in September shows that out of the estimated 20.41 crore children in the age group of 6-13 in India, an estimated 60.41 lakh (2.97 per cent) are out of school. This proportion of out-of-school children...

-The Hindu Is India ready to cash in on its demographic dividend? A demographic dividend is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a nation and can either make or mar its citizens' present and future. When the share of the working-age population is on a rising curve while the share of dependents (those under the age of 15 and over 60) is falling, it enables workers to save (hence savings share in GDP rises)...