-The Telegraph The Prime Minister today tipped civil servants on technology's power to carry government services to the remotest corners. He might have been surprised to learn that closer home, it was a different story. At the capital's seat of power, the babus are beating technology hands down. In 2009, then home minister P. Chidambaram had introduced a biometric attendance system to ensure punctuality in his ministry. He himself was often seen holding...

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)...

-Outlook India has long been the sleeping giant of global agriculture. But its misguided policies while boosting short-term output, yet may transform India into a food importer After decades on the sidelines of international agricultural trade, India was poised last year to become a major food supplier, overtaking traditional exporters of food grain and meat. This could prove to be flash in the pan. The sudden rise and fall of India...

-The Hindu Even as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) frets over the high rate of inflation and wards off pressures to cut interest rates, it is faced with another challenge. Balance of payments data for the second quarter of 2012-13 show that the current account deficit continues to rise, and has touched a record 5.4 per cent of GDP. Both of these developments that would be considered signs of “overheating”...

-First Post While the average Human Development Index (HDI) for the region is 0.558, below the world average of 0.693, South Asia saw the highest growth in the index between 2000 and 2012, according to the United Nations Human Development Report 2013. The region registered an annual growth of 1.43 percent in HDI, the highest compared to other regions. It also said that the developing countries as a whole are driving the...