-PTI Nearly 2,000 children around the globe, under the age of five, die every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene, with 24 per cent of the deaths occurring in India alone, a U.N. report has warned. Globally, an estimated 2,000 children under the age of five die every day from diarrhoeal diseases and of these some 1,800 deaths are linked to water, sanitation and hygiene,...

-The Times of India   Nearly one in every six urban Indian residents lives in a slum, newly released Census data shows. The new numbers are significantly lower than the slum growth that had been projected for India. "Our own projections were that the all-India slum population would be 27.5% by 2011, so the new data comes as a pleasant surprise," Arun Kumar Misra, secretary in the ministry of housing and urban poverty...

-The Business Standard Sale price of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 for wheat and Re 1 for coarse cereals will be revised every three years The National Food Security Bill is expected to be tabled in Parliament today, after being cleared by the Cabinet earlier this week. The Bill has said that it will be responsibility of the central government to provide assistance to the states in meeting the expenditure...

-Live Mint Poor children up to the age of six years to get free meals, Bill emphasizes reforms in public distribution system The revised food security Bill, which is expected to be tabled on Friday in the Lok Sabha, has provisions to make State Governments pay allowances to beneficiaries in case they fail to provide the foodgrain promised under the proposed legislation, and extends maternity benefits to every pregnant woman and lactating...

-The New York Times Inequality has been rising in most countries around the world, but it has played out in different ways across countries and regions. The US, it is increasingly recognised, has the sad distinction of being the most unequal advanced country. Singapore, meanwhile, has had the distinction of having prioritised social and economic equity while achieving very high rates of growth over the past 30 years: an example par excellence...