-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Recruitment of minorities in central government services fell from 11.56% of total hires in 2010-11 to just 6.89% in 2012-13, according to data collected from nearly 70 Union ministries and departments. The government, which released the data in reply to a Parliament question on Thursday, has blamed the falling recruitment levels of minority candidates, which depends on the number of applications received and percentage of qualifying...

-Down to Earth A Kerala village grows organic pokkali rice after 25 years Harvest of pokkali rice in Kerala's Ezhupunna village, which began on October 27 and lasted three weeks, was nothing short of a local event. After all, the indigenous, saline and flood-resistant rice variety was cultivated in the village after 25 years. People in the village had to wage a long battle to be able to cultivate the crop once...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Around two in five men in India - nearly 40.7% - were found to hold 'rigid and discriminatory' gender views. This segment believes women to be inferior. Such men are very controlling. They tend to dictate whom the wives can meet and do not allow participation in decision-making. Further, men who hold the most rigid views of masculinity are three times more likely to physically abuse their...

-Down to Earth The free medicine scheme in Rajasthan may benefit Congress Of the many poll sops that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot doled out in the past two years, the one scheme that seems to have struck the right chord with voters is the initiative to give free essential medicines at government healthcare facilities. The Mukhyamantri Nishulk Dava Yojna, launched in 2011, has offered some hope to the incumbent Congress government,...

-The Business Standard The structural changes in India's rural workforce Seldom in the past has the country's labour market gone through structural changes faster than it has in recent years. Apart from a sharp decline in the proportion of workers employed in agriculture, the perceptible withdrawal of women from the workforce is the most striking feature of India's labour market. Going by the numbers the census and the National Sample Survey Office...