The number of Internet users in rural India will swell to 5.4 million in 2010, translating into a 30 per cent growth, primarily driven by farmers going online to check their e-mail. The number of active Internet users in rural India will swell to 5.4 million in 2010, a growth of 30 per cent from 3.3 million in 2008, according to a research study jointly conducted by the Internet and Mobile...

From being one of the safest states for women in 2000, Bengal has sunk to being one of the most dangerous. According to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Bengal has climbed to the third spot on the list of crimes against women in 2008, after Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In 2000, Bengal was 22nd, bureau officials said. Of 1,95,856 reported incidents of crime against women— both...

As soon as the Rajya Sabha passed the women’s reservation bill, ensuring 33 per cent reservations for women in Parliament and state legislative assemblies, the issue of backward and Muslim women jigged to the centre of the debate. Earlier, whenever Muslim women managed to come into the limelight, it was all grabbed by the IMRanas and the Gudias, not to forget the Shahbanos — supposed to be living in the...

Last summer, about 150 families of Kachan village in Jharkhand’s Palamu district decided to pool funds to repair their only community tube well. A drought, the worst in many years, had dried up two ponds; there were no wells around; and the tube well had been dysfunctional for a year. It took a lot of hardship and one whole month for them to put together what the mechanic had asked...

The Sample Registration Survey (SRS)-2008 puts the Infant Mortality Rate in Madhya Pradesh at 70/1000 live births. The total number of births in the State for 2008-09 according to the State Department of Public Health and Family Welfare was 17,51,243. According to the IMR of 70/1000 live birth, the absolute figure for total infant deaths for 2008-09 would stand at 122,587. In his written reply to Congress MLA Mahendra Singh...