-CaravanMagazine.in In mid 2011, Diane Coffey and Dean Spears, both visiting researchers at Economics and Planning Unit of Indian Statistical Institute in Delhi and also assistant professors at the University of Texas at Austin, moved to Sitapur, a district in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct a study on poor early-life health and process of stunting among many Indian children. While Coffey attempted to understand the challenges of raising a baby in the...

-TheWire.in The negotiator’s comments were non-committal but indicated that for now, the RCEP talks have not yet moved decisively into a TRIP-plus scenario. The chief negotiator for New Zealand, at the Asia trade pact talks in Hyderabad this week, made pointed reference to TRIPS-plus (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) provisions, saying that while the TRIPS agreement on intellectual property rights was sufficient, it was up to the countries to analyse whether...

-The Hindu The political scientist on the danger to India’s checks and balances, and the perils of the democratisation of mediocrity in universities Professor of political science and a holder of the Madan Lal Sobti Chair, Devesh Kapur has been director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary India at University of Pennsylvania since 2006. Mr. Kapur, who recently co-edited Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design, says our public universities...

-Hindustan Times/ IndiaSpend A two-year-old project in Rajasthan used an unusual strategy to break this pattern among poor tribal communities. Instead of simply increasing their food supply and Access — the standard approach for dealing with malnutrition — it attempted to break the tradition of prioritising men’s needs first. When the women of this southwestern Rajasthan village sat down to eat, it was usually after the rest of the family had finished...

A recent one-liner about the achievement of the present Central government goes like this: bovine has become ‘divine’ during the NDA’s rule. But why do such jokes originate? Media reports suggest that unprecedented aggression has taken place during the recent months in the name of the peaceful looking animal – cow. Mob lynching and killings by fringe groups have been reported from various parts of the country, especially targeting Muslims and...