-PTI A maximum of 247 communal violence-related incidents, which claimed 77 lives, took place in Uttar Pradesh in 2013, the government told Rajya Sabha today. Maharashtra came next with 88 communal violence incidents last year followed by Madhya Pradesh (84), Karnataka (73), Gujarat (68), Bihar (63) and Rajasthan (52). While 12 people were killed in Maharashtra in these incidents, 11 people were killed in MP during the same period. Uttar Pradesh...

-The Times of India The Planning Commission periodically revises the poverty line at the all-India and state levels based on large household expenditure surveys of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). These are typically once in five years. The figures of Rs 10.8 per capita per day in Gujarat's rural areas and Rs 16.7 in urban areas are based on the Planning Commission determined state-specific poverty line based on NSSO data for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Backed by villagers and displaced people from different states, members of 200 NGOs from across the country on Monday slammed environment and forests minister M Veerappa Moily for ignoring environment and social concerns while granting speedy clearances to mining and infrastructure projects. Alleging that recent clearances pointed to "high corruption", the groups wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They also demanded immediate rollback of the...

-Outlook   Gujarat government today clarified that it had not issued any new guidelines for identification of Below Poverty Line families, saying it could not take such a step unilaterally without involving the Centre. Reacting to a media report which claimed that the Gujarat government had come up with new criteria for identification of BPL families, the state's Food and Civil Supplies Secretary RP Gupta said that they had merely reiterated the guidelines...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: In the age of khaps, village panchayats generally hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, especially on matters of gender. But the sarpanch of Fatehgadh in Amreli is an exception. He wants to see more daughters playing on the streets of his village. Rattled by the scarce number of girls - the village has only 50 girls against 200 boys in the 0-18 years' age bracket...