-The United Nations   Member States kicked off a three-day meeting at the United Nations in New York today with the aim of finding ways to improve living standards and employment for the more than one billion people worldwide living with disabilities. About 80 per cent of the people with disabilities are of working age and face physical, social, economic and cultural challenge to their access to education, skills development and employment, according...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: What happens when academic rivalry spills over into the political arena? A riveting contest ensues, if the one being played out in the run-up to the general elections along with the Narendra Modi-Nitish Kumar showdown is any indication. While the Jagdish Bhagwati-Arvind Panagariya combo - both professors of economics at Columbia University - are packing a fair punch, Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen is ducking and dodging,...

-The Guardian A landmark bill to make the right to food a legal entitlement is mired in controversy over its failure to address a flawed public food distribution system, misplaced priorities and exclusions India has an over abundance of food grains stocked in warehouses, yet millions of India's poor are left without food. Development practitioners and NGOs are in favour of disbanding the current food security system, the public distribution system (PDS),...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will dissect the concept of "mother tongue" - an issue that reflects the diversity of India and touches every child in the country. Besides deciding the very basic question of "what does ‘mother tongue' mean", the Constitution bench will look into whether it can be imposed by the State on all children as a compulsory medium of instruction at the primary...

-The Times of India Of the five million odd graduates that India produces annually, only a little over half are employable in any sector of the knowledge economy. Inadequate English and computer skills are key factors holding back students, especially those from smaller towns. The National Employability Report by Aspiring Minds, an employability solutions company, revealed this, based on the computer adaptive test on 60,000 Indian graduates. The students were tested communication...