-The Indian Express There is a mounting employment crisis in India. The current growth model, built on large private investments, cannot address the problem. Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan raised many hackles with his demand for affirmative action or job reservations for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates in the private sector. He suggested that “providing quota in private jobs will help cool down anger among SC and STs”, thereby stemming...

Amidst the prevailing gloominess over agrarian crisis, a recently released report says that the growth rate of agricultural output in both India and China were the same during 2008-2013. The agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) of both these countries on an average grew at 3.3 percent per annum during that period. The latest available data from the 2016 Global Food Policy Report, however, indicates that the neighbouring countries of Sri Lanka...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union health ministry will on Thursday launch the third phase of a vaccination campaign to cover an estimated 36 lakh children in 216 districts across India who have never received vaccines or remain partially immunised. The campaign designed to immunise children against seven vaccine-preventable diseases - diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis-B - will focus on areas dogged by irregular or Poor routine immunisation...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In order to give women wider choice, the government has introduced a mix of birth-control measures, including injectable contraceptives and new oral pills, under the national family planning programme, health minister J P Nadda has said. Age-old condom brand 'Nirodh' has been given a makeover with a new logo and communication strategy, led by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassador, to give a boost...

-Livemint.com Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology says there is a 54% probability that rainfall during the monsoon season this year will be 10 mm-per-day more than normal New Delhi: Weather scientists said they may have spotted signs of a normal, if not a good, rainy season this year, sparking hope among farmers and policymakers alike after two successive bad monsoons. With just three weeks to go for the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) much-awaited...