-The Indian Express   Rural areas have shown a faster pace of decline as poverty levels dipped by over seven percentage points in the past five years in the country. As per Planning Commission estimates released on Monday, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand are among the top performers, with the decline in poverty in each of these states estimated at 10 percentage points or more between 2004-05...

-The Times of India Buying a tribal bride may no longer be easy for boys from upper caste communities that have low sex ratios. Tribals across Gujarat are increasingly resentful of their daughters marrying into communities with few girls because of female foeticide. The Garasiya tribals of north Gujarat have even issued a diktat to the members not to marry girls outside the community. The leaders met in Shamlaji earlier this month...

-The Times of India The Centre on Thursday junked the Planning Commission's poverty definition with PM Manmohan Singh saying that there was a need to devise another method. "We need a multi-layered approach to assess poverty estimates. The Tendulkar Committee estimates have been followed for 30 years but not an inclusive estimate. It (Tendulkar report) is not satisfactory," Singh said on the sidelines of the Padma Awards function. A new team will devise...

-The Times of India Manipur is worst affected by militancy in the country, overtaking J&K and other northeastern states. Mizoram and Tripura are among the most peaceful states. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, minister of state for home Jitendra Singh said 246 militancy-related incidents occurred in Manipur in the first three months of 2012. During that period, 34 such incidents occurred in J&K. This year, 21 militants,...

The Planning Commission had released a report, yesterday indicating reduced poverty line to Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas, scaling down India’s poverty ratio from 37.2 percent to 29.8 percent in 2009-10. Firstpost did an interview with Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission. Here are excerpts from the interview: When we say there is a 7.3 percentage points (from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 29.8...