In a disturbing trend, Jammu and Kashmir has shown a decline in the child sex ratio in 2011 Census, the figures of which would be released soon. The overall sex ratio has also gone down. While the population has been pegged at more than 1.25 crore, indicating a decadal growth of more than 23 per cent, the literacy rate has shown encouraging trends. The area of grave concern for the state would...

The Manmohan Singh government and the Congress leadership appear to have overcome initial jitters and hardened their stand on the campaign launched by social activists led by Anna Hazare who began a “fast-unto-death” at Delhi’s agitation hub Jantar Mantar this morning. The Congress suspects that the entire campaign has been hijacked by the RSS which, the party feels, is looking for ways to destabilise the government after some Sangh leaders were...

The Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday said there were 341 custodial deaths so far in the state since 1990. In a written reply to a question of NC member Javed Ahmed Rana in the Legislative Council, chief minister Omar Abdullah said 341 people died in police custody in the state since 1990. However, there was no report of any custodial death from Rajouri and Poonch districts. He said 113 people --...

Dozens of countries are taking part in a United Nations-sponsored effort to protect potentially life-saving centuries-old traditional medicines from bio-piracy by learning from India how to halt their misappropriation through international patents granted on non-original innovations. Representatives from more than 35 countries wrapped up a three-day meeting in New Delhi today that discussed emulating India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a database documenting traditional medicinal treatment, concluding that such a mechanism...

Why are the erstwhile RTI campaigners so alarmed five years after it became law? Why so many dharnas, rallies, conventions and hunger-strikes all over again? Part of the reason is that the silent revolution that the RTI has spawned needs to be defended from surreptitious alterations and manipulations, and partly because the RTI activists are being threatened, harassed and assaulted by the corrupt and the powerful, often with the connivance...