-The Telegraph We rank 138th out of 180 countries on press freedom, and among the highest for murders of journalists pending investigation India’s list of dubious distinctions is growing, especially with regard to the fourth estate. If it were not bad enough that the country has steadily been sliding downward each year on the World Press Freedom Index — at present, it ranks 138th out of 180 countries, just one place ahead...

-The Times of India blog Apparently, we should be proud that India has the highest statue in the world – taller than anything the US and China possess. Poor Sardar Patel – his memory invoked in such a schoolboy way. A giant leader, with all his strengths and weaknesses, represented by a monstrous metal emblem of rising India. As we think about the tallest statue in the world, we should also remember...

-The Hindu Country’s high population makes it vulnerable to an ecological crisis, says World Wide Fund for Nature India’s soil biodiversity is in grave peril, according to the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas prepared by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The WWF’s ‘risk index’ for the globe — indicating threats from loss of above-ground diversity, pollution and nutrient over-loading, over-grazing, intensive agriculture, fire, soil erosion, desertification and climate change — shows India among...

For long, economists have argued among themselves whether income should be the only criterion for measuring poverty. After all, in real life a person can face multiple deprivations, say, in terms of access to education, health and living standards, among others. The multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which offers a valuable complement to traditional income-based poverty measures, was first introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR). The MPI looks at...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India's toxic air has been linked to the premature deaths of close to 1,10,000 children in 2016, with the country witnessing highest number of deaths of children under five years of age attributed to their exposure to ambient air pollution of particulate matter (PM) 2.5, said a World Health Organisation (WHO) report released on the eve of the first-ever conference on air pollution and health. As...