-Business Standard On life expectancy at birth, India fares marginally better than Pakistan New Delhi: Reacting to the terrorist strike at the army camp in Uri, Prime Minister narendra modi urged Pakistan to go to war against poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and infant mortality instead, saying let’s see who wins those wars. But a Business Standard examination of various human development indicators suggests that while currently India fares better on most key indicators,...

-The Hindu Governance performance ranked over a decade Regional disparity has been growing over the years, shows a new study which evaluates the governance performance of 19 major States. The research, conducted by Sudipto Mundle, Samik Chaudhury and Satadru Sikdar, was published in The Economic and Political Weekly earlier this month. Five of the six best-performing States in 2001 — Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab — continue to be the...

-Livemint.com According to a background note prepared by the agriculture ministry, less than a fifth of targeted farmers have received soil health cards New Delhi: The government’s flagship scheme to correct the imbalance in fertiliser use and reduce costs of cultivation by providing all farmers with a soil health card is moving at a slow pace as states drag their feet. According to a background note prepared by the agriculture ministry and...

-Hindustan Times Toronto: A culture of intolerance has taken root in India and grown “more menacing” since narendra modi became Prime Minister two years ago, according to a new report prepared jointly by a Canadian university and global writers group PEN International. India must overhaul its antiquated laws and cumbersome legal system, which are increasingly being misused to silence dissent, said the report titled “Fearful Silence: The Chill on India’s Public Sphere”. It...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) is set for a final burial in March 2017, but the Congress can draw consolation from the fact that the rural housing scheme bearing the name of the former PM will run parallel to narendra modi's Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY) in its final six months. The Union rural development ministry is set to launch the rural PMAY in October. Even so,...