-The Hindustan Times The next time you hear a knock on your door, it may turn out to be your friendly local health worker with a choice of contraceptives for you. And who will you have to thank for that? None else than health and family welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, whose innovations in the field of population are matchless. Well, don't hold your breath just yet, this is one scheme...

A war of words has erupted between the chief ministers of Bihar and Gujarat. Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar has slammed Narendra Modi for taking potshots at the state's slow socio-economic growth. The altercation began with Modi saying that caste politics has ruined states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Hitting back, Nitish has said that Modi should look at the conditions in his own state before criticising others. For the last...

-Live Mint It turns out that some state officials were using NRHM to enrich themselves The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched seven years ago with the goal of improving healthcare delivery to people in villages, especially the poor, through a generous infusion of federal funds. Local authorities were given a relatively free hand in deciding how to spend the money, with the Centre promising funds with no strings attached for...

Rejecting the view that the cartoon in the Standard XII textbook, prepared by the NCERT, denigrated the anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu, Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, argued that the “book is one of the first attempts in the history of textbook writing in India to have given due prominence to the Dravidian Movement in post-Independent India.” “I am shocked and surprised to see that...

-The Business Standard The Western Ghats need local environmental governance What sets the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, headed by Professor Madhav Gadgil, apart from most other reports delivered by such government-appointed committees is that it does not view environmental factors in Isolation from development imperatives. Nevertheless, its recommendations pay careful attention to the need for protection and preservation of the biological wealth of one of the world’s hot...