-Down to Earth Poverty line figures hide people's aspirations There are lies, damn lies and statistics, American author Mark Twain once wrote echoing a similar statement by the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. Statistics aim to reveal a lot, but they conceal vital information. This concealing tendency of statistics explains much of the flak received by the Planning Commission when it released figures on the poverty line. In 2012, the commission announced that...
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World Bank: 700 million women subject to conjugal violence
-AFP A new World Bank report says violence endured by women is one of the key factors in limiting their achievement Washington: More than 700 million women worldwide are subject to physical or sexual violence from their husbands or partners, many with little right to protection, the World Bank said on Wednesday. The problem is worst in South Asia and Africa, where more than two women in five have experienced violence at the...
More »A field of disagreement-Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express The Gujarat model continues to generate more heat than light. This is in response to Professor Yoginder K. Alagh's article, ‘Posture-nomics' (IE, May 7), wherein he says, "Getting back to agriculture, the 10 per cent growth rate figure was the result of a paid-for study commissioned by the government of Gujarat and conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, to which [Ashok] Gulati was affiliated. The finding was...
More »India needs to do a lot more to effectively deal with El Niño fallout-Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-The Business Standard More, water levels in the reservoirs of southern India are below the 10-year average at 8.28 billion cubic metres As doubts mount over the impact of El Niño on the southwest monsoon season in 2014, India's preparedness to face a low rainfall situation seems to have improved in the past four-five years. However, there are many gaps to be plugged. For example, although the average water in major reservoirs across...
More »Neighbours outperform India on maternal health
A new report from the United Nations entitled Trends in maternal mortality estimates 1990 to 2013 shows that India accounted for 17 percent (i.e. 50000 maternal deaths) of global maternal deaths (i.e 289000 maternal deaths) in 2013. Previously the State of World’s Children 2009 report stated that India’s share in global maternal deaths was a staggering 22 percent in 2005. (Please see the links below). The latest report on trends in maternal mortality...
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