-The Hindu Surveys conducted by activists estimate that there are over 1.2 million manual scavengers in India As numbers become data and move from being just a random rearrangement of 0-9, they speak volumes about peoples, nations, and their objectives. They form the basis of government policies, and have the intrinsic potential to change lives, correct historical wrongs and national trajectories. The last election results, we were told, were a message from ‘Aspirational...

-Livemint.com The Global Consumption and Income Project suggests that official statistics might be understating the extent of poverty How much of India is poor? And by how much has that number reduced over the years? This is an old debate and the answers to these questions vary greatly depending on the choice of the survey method and the poverty line. According to official statistics , India’s poverty rate declined from 45% in...

-The Times of India Gandhinagar: The delayed implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by the Gujarat government from April 1 has thrown up a rather unappetizing truth. More than 1.58 lakh people with permanent government jobs, four wheelers, five or more acres of land, monthly income of Rs 10,000 and paying income-tax -- were feeding off wheat and rice at Rs 2 per kg and highly subsidized sugar and kerosene...

-Hindustan Times India has the best and the worst medical education in the world, according to a review of the world’s largest database of peer-reviewed literature. Four medical colleges in India are among the top 10 global institutions that published the most research between 2004 and 2014, while around 60% of the country’s 579 medical institutions have published no research in a decade. Only 25 (4.3%) institutions published more than 100 papers a...

-Livemint.com Work-related seasonal migration is higher when rainfall is low and the construction sector, the largest employer of such labour, is witnessing a slowdown Mumbai: The announcement of plentiful rains this year is likely to spell relief for those forced to migrate because of failing monsoons. A slowdown in the construction industry which employs most migrant labourers would likely have strained their ability to deal with another deficient year after rains...