Civil society member on the Lokpal Bill drafting committee Arvind Kejriwal said at a news conference here on Saturday that all the members on the panel were ready for an independent inquiry into allegations against them. Asked whether Mr. Shanti Bhushan had offered to step down from the panel at Saturday's meeting, he said, “Nothing is going to come out from his leaving the panel. We have offered ourselves to any...

For the first time in five decades, Uttar Pradesh has witnessed a decline in the decadal growth rate of its population. According to the data released by the Directorate of Census Operations in Lucknow on Tuesday, the state has registered a decrease of 5.76 per cent, with its population growth coming down from 25.85 per cent in 1991-2001 to 20.09 per cent in 2001-11. However, Uttar Pradesh with its population...

After gaining 12 healthy points since the 2001 Census, the literacy rate of Uttar Pradesh moved closer to the national average of 74.04%. The state registered a literacy rate of 69.72% in the 2011 Census. Top performers in the state, which helped in increasing the percentage by several points are Ghaziabad (85%), Gautam Budh Nagar (82.20%) and capital Lucknow (79.33%). Female literacy rates in the state have also registered a remarkable jump...

Nearly 400 people have been admitted to hospitals in north India after eating adulterated flour, police say. All the patients had consumed snacks made from buckwheat flour. A mill in the northern state of Rajasthan has been traced as the source, police said. The patients complained of vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach ache. Cases of food poisoning have been reported from the capital, Delhi, and towns of Meerut, Ghaziabad and Bulandshar in Uttar Pradesh...

Adding just 30 lakh people in the last 10 years, Delhi experienced its slowest population growth in almost a century. The decadal growth rate of 21% was less than half the figure of 47% for the previous decade. Census officials attributed this to a combination of declining fertility and mass slum demolitions. Provisional district-level data released by Varsha Joshi, director of census operations for NCT, on Monday said this is the...