While inflation has been hitting people hard across the country, the rate of price rise has been the most in Kerala, Orissa and Meghalaya, as per government data released today.     In all three states, the consumer price index (CPI) overall stood at 108 in January from a base of 100 in 2010, suggesting inflation of 8 per cent. Incidentally, even richer states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi and Punjab reported a...

Poverty forces sex workers to sell their bodies, the Supreme Court said on Monday and directed the Centre and states to impart vocational training to them so that they could earn a livelihood. "A woman is compelled to indulge in prostitution not for pleasure but because of abject poverty. If such a woman is granted opportunity to avail some technical or vocational training, she would be able to earn her livelihood...

Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu high on HDI: study In a study done by Abusaleh Shariff, chief economist at the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Gujarat surprisingly emerges as a State with high levels of hunger, while simultaneously boasting high per capita income and consistent income stability. The hunger levels in Gujarat are higher than in Tamil Nadu and West bengal, and surprisingly even higher than in Uttar Pradesh, according to...

With higher sowing of wheat, pulses, sugarcane, cotton and oilseeds reported this rabi season, there are expectations of a bumper crop production this year. The total food grains output is expected to be 232.07 million tonnes, which is only marginally lower than the record production of 234.47 million tonnes in 2008-09. Announcing the second advance estimates of food grains production for the 2010-11 crop year last week, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar...

And you thought you could get information from the State using the RTI Act? Take your place in the line behind thousands of frustrated citizens The government is considering changes to the Right To Information Act (RTI) that activists feel could dilute the power of the Act. Former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan has recommended protecting the judiciary from RTI queries apparently on grounds that the move would “erode” the...