-The Hindu Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan have the highest proportion When the results to the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections came out two weeks ago, the northern State had produced twice the proportion of women legislators as its western counterpart. This isn't an exception; States with poor records on gender equality are consistently producing more female MLAs. Using Election Commission of India data, The Hindu found that as of today, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Women empowerment may be the key slogan for every government since independence, but the findings of a government report show women still lag way behind men in having a say in decision making and in their participation in economic activity. The Central Statistics Office (CSO)'s publication "Women and Men in India 2014" found that women occupied seven out of 45 ministerial positions in the Narendra Modi's...

Documents availed through RTI reveals that the Rural Development minister Shri Nitin Gadkari has ordered to bring drastic changes in the schedule of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which includes changing the labour to material ratio and restricting the implementation of MGNREGA in 1/3rd of backward blocks in India (please click here to access a note on labour-material ratio prepared by People's Action for Employment Guarantee-PAEG). The MoRD has notified the...

-The Hindustan Times   The complexion of the 16th Lok Sabha, borne out of the most decisive mandate in 30 years, looks like a mixed bag of milestones. First up, the lower house will have the highest number of women lawmakers. On most other counts of demography, it still needs to shape up. The average asset of an MP has more than doubled from about Rs. 6 crore to Rs. 14 core in...

-Frontline   Political parties flush with funds provided by corporate houses are winning over journalists, and some news organisations are creating packages for election coverage, making the phenomenon of ‘paid news' all pervasive. THE credibility of journalism and journalists has been greatly undermined by the scourge of cash for coverage, a much-abhorred sickness in the profession worldwide. News space on television, radio and newsprint is compromised with impunity with blatant advertising parading...