-The Times of India DANTEWADA: Six-year-old Shiva Yadav sang softly to Shahid Khan, about two-and-half-years-old, trying to lull him to sleep. Their mothers — Vime Yadav and Kureshia Begum — were busy chopping vegetables for dinner of 250 children at Dantewada's Aastha hostel in south Chhattisgarh. Vime is a cook and Kureshia works as a peon at the state government-run Aastha. They landed the jobs after their husbands were killed in...

-The Times of India India's official unemployment rate was 3.8% for the last year and higher for urban than rural areas according to statistics released by the Labour Bureau on Tuesday. Goa, Kerala Bihar and West Bengal were among the states with high unemployment while Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Punjab were among the states with low unemployment. The 'Second Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey 2011-12', conducted by the Union Ministry of Labour...

-The Hindu Unsustainable import competition and the end of the investment subsidy that the sale of under-priced resources provided to Indian companies are the main reasons why the economy has slowed down What has been called the ‘golden age’ of India’s economic growth was underpinned by global integration, high rates of investment and savings growth and low current account deficits. The slowdown is characterised by a sharp deceleration in investment growth on...

Model community Forestry initiatives in Orissa are defying Forest Department efforts to control and exploit the region’s Forests. ‘Heaven is a Forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees / And hell is a Forest of miles and miles of Mohua trees with a Forest guard in it!’ Thus goes a song of the Muria Adivasis in the Forests of Bastar in central India. Encapsulated in this simple expression, however, is...

-The Economic Times The Centre's efforts to ensure economic empowerment of tribals in Forest areas received a fillip with the Maharashtra government's order to bring all joint Forest management committees under the control of gram sabhas.  The state government resolution transferred all rights of minor Forest produce and major timber to the gram sabha-elected joint Forest management committees. Despite legal guarantees, many gram sabhas (village assemblies) are unable to have a final...