-The Indian Express In Gujarat, growth relies on indebtedness. And relegates development. The Gujarat pattern of development has often been arraigned from the left because of its social deficits. Indeed, the state's social indicators do not match its economic performance. With 23 per cent of its citizens living below the poverty line in 2010, Gujarat does better than the Indian average - 29.8 per cent - but it reduced this proportion by...

-The Hindu Biomass cookstoves and solar lighting improve the health of women and are creating business models that empower them Around the world three billion people have no access to modern cooking fuels. They depend mostly on direct burning of solid biomass for cooking and heating. The smoke from these rudimentary stoves causes some four million deaths annually, destroys millions of tonnes of crops and leads to global warming and large-scale regional...

-The Hindu Even if labourers wish to clear the loan, their employers won't accept it Hassan (Karnataka): Even as the issue of bonded labour in Ragimaroor village in Arkalgud taluk is fresh in public memory, it has come to light that 27 people are allegedly being forced to work as bonded labourers at a quarry in Malladevarapura village in Hassan taluk. The labourers chip away rocks from dawn to dusk for a paltry...

-The Times of India SASARAM: A dalit villager was stoned to death and at least 40 people were injured, eight of them seriously, as a 500-strong mob of upper caste men attacked them for defying their diktat of not to unfurl the tricolour in front of a temple of Sant Ravidas at Baddi village in Rohtas district, 160km from Patna, on Independence Day. The deceased was identified as Vilas Ram. The assailants...

-Frontline The midday meal scheme is a grand idea in a flawed school system. "THEY played here, studied here and got buried here!" (Yahin khela, yahin padha aur yahin ho gaya dafan). With these emphatic words, grieving parents buried the bodies of two children within the compound of the Dharmasati Gandaman Primary School of Masharakh block in Saran district of Bihar. This sentiment was expressed with great dignity even in the...