-Live Mint Lack of decentralization means municipalities lack power, resources to meet rising aspirations of ‘middle' India Othakadai, Madurai (Tamil Nadu)/Hubli (Karnataka): S. Paramasivam , president of the Othakadai panchayat, has big plans for his area. "Rainwater harvesting, removal of encroachments on roads, waste recycling, covered drainage, bigger primary health care centres and community parks," lists the 58-year-old, who has spent 30 years in the stainless steel business that dominates industry...

-The Hindu Madurai: Tempers ran high at the Collectorate on Tuesday when a majority of the farmers, who participated at a public hearing, opposed acquisition of land for the proposed SIPCOT industrial estate at Sivarakottai near Tirumangalam in the district. Farmers from Sami Mallampatti, Sivarakottai and Karisalkalanpatti participated in the public hearing organised by the district administration. Collector Anshul Mishra said industries had to be established to provide jobs to the unemployed youth...

-The Hindu   "Stopping rape" isn't possible unless we change the way we tackle and think about ordinary violence Some images stay branded on your mind. The brutality visited on three young girls, before their bodies were found in a well; the pain of a five-year-old whose rapist used candles and an oil bottle to violate her further; the anger of the Dalit rape survivor in Uttar Pradesh who was told by a...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-DNA For a rural management institute working to uplift lives of the underpriviliged, absence of norms of reservation for scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) is an irony. Or it seemed so to Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh, who was the chief guest at Saturday's convocation of the Institute of Rural Management (Irma), Anand. As he began the convocation address, Jairam asked Irma chairman Deep Joshi to enforce reservation...