KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...

Persistent inequalities, ineffective delivery of public services, weak accountability systems and gaps in implementing pro-poor policies are major bottlenecks to India’s progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, says a report released by the Government of India. Despite some movement in primary education, assured rural employment and access to potable water, India continues to lag behind in realising the Millennium Development Goals set for 2015 by the United Nations, says a...

KEY TRENDS   • Section 105 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which provides for excluding 13 Central legislation, including Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, Atomic Energy Act, 1962, Railway Act 1989, National Highways Act 1956 and Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, from its purview, has been amended for payment of compensation with rigours $ • The amendments have now...

India's first caste-based census since 1931 will take place next year, the cabinet has announced. It said the controversial count would last from June-September 2011, after a full census had been held. Answering questions on caste will be optional. The move is intended to help target affirmative action benefits. Discrimination relating to caste in Hinduism - the complex social hierarchy based on people's occupations - is banned in India but still goes on. Critics...

After the slow pick-up of the $220 One Laptop Per Child Project, and an uncertainty over the $35 laptop called Sakshat, the government is now experimenting with another model—to dole out computers on rent to spread IT literacy in the country. Under a pilot program to be launched by the ministry of IT & communications, computers specially built for rural areas will be deployed in five locations, and then rented...