-The Hindustan Times Chhattisgarh police found something out of the ordinary during a recent raid at a Maoist camp in Abujhmad Forest: Primary-level textbooks for children. Police fear the books — which cover subjects ranging from social studies to mathematics — are being used by Naxals to teach Maoist propaganda to children in the area. “We only had sketchy inputs about Naxals teaching their doctrines. This is the first time primary-level books...

-Outlook Out in our streets, disabled people feel the pain everyday The Gaping Holes     India yet to get a cohesive, standardised sign language     Barrier-free infrastructure yet to be implemented in public areas like bus stations, railway stations, schools, cinema halls     Lack of basic, inclusive civic facilities: no audio-enabled traffic signals, pavements with ramps, few disability-friendly toilets, negligible penalties     Poor functional entertainment accessibility, like no subtitling on local language TV channels     Reservation...

-Outlook Output of major crops, both food and non-food, is expected to decline by about 2.3 per cent in 2012-13 as sowing has remained sluggish, economic think tank CMIE has said. "Production of major crops is projected to decline in 2012-13. A fall in output of both food and non-food crops is expected to dip by 2.3 per cent," Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said in its monthly report. Kharif acreage continued to...

-SamayLive.com A group of farmers began protests outside the residence of Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh in Delhi on Friday against the final draft of the Land Acquisition Bill . Farmers  gathered outside the residence of Jairam Ramesh and  are protesting against the draft Land Acquisition Bill that was cleared for Parliament by the government last week. The final draft of the  bill will now be placed before the Union Cabinet and is...

-Outlook Hyderabad: The next generation of biodiversity models across the world could emerge from the knowledge of existing approaches in India, a new United Nations Development Programme report said today. The UNDP report calls for adopting a "landscape approach" to bio-diversity governance which will allow a range of ecosystems and not just the smaller protected parts of it to thrive. On the basis of a detailed review of prevalent bio-diversity management models in...