-Economic and Political Weekly   Open defecation is a major health hazard and causes enormous hardship, especially to rural women. Government funds for constructing toilets have to be supplemented with awareness campaigns to motivate ordinary people to do their part. Sarola, a village in Maharashtra, was able to become "open defecation free" with effective community participation, taking advantage of the Sant Gadgebaba Gram Swachhata Abhiyan. Toilets were built in every house, along...

-The Hindu     The state must remain in higher education as the private sector is yet to demonstrate its capacity to create knowledge on a sufficient scale The impending inauguration of a new government finds interested parties bringing into the public arena matters of importance to them. One of the issues that has been raised recently is whether higher education in India should be privatised. This question merits serious attention. And though interest...

-The Hindu   Farmers are again at the receiving end due to delay in procurement NALGONDA (Andhra Pradesh): The delight of getting a good paddy yield during the season was short-lived as the farmers had much difficulty in selling their produce and the unprepared and short-staffed district administration failed to stop millers from exploiting farmers in the district. Farmers cultivated paddy in more than 2 lakh hectares, highest in the recent past and second...

-IANS   A bumper wheat crop this season should have brought smiles on the faces of Punjab's hard-working farmers. But a variety of adverse circumstances, including the weather, has left them dispirited. The bumper crop apart, Punjab farmers have been forced to deal with unseasonal rainfall and thunderstorms in recent days with the harvested crop lying in the open in grain markets and agricultural fields getting wet and moisture content in the grains...

-The Times of India   HAZARIBAG: Bikram Kumar Das, deputy general manager, Nabard in Ranchi said unless banks provide loans to women self help groups formed in 18 of the 24 districts in the state, the purpose to make them self reliant will be defeated. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, he said despite Nabard providing funds through NGOs, banks are not sanctioning loans to the self help groups. Although these women's...