Modern India continues to be plagued by social and health ills like child marriage, early motherhood and domestic violence. Latest data in the "State of the World's Children report 2012" released by Unicef on Wednesday shows that almost 22% women in India, who are now aged between 20 and 24 years gave birth to a child before they turned 18. Almost 45 among every 1,000 births are born to mothers in the...
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Budget 2012: Finance ministry set to hike agriculture lending target despite sharp rise in NPAs by Dheeraj Tiwari
The finance ministry is all set to increase the agriculture lending target by around 25% in the budget for 2012-13 despite a sharp increase in the non-performing loans in the sector. In the last budget, the government had increased the target to 4.75 lakh crore from 3.75 lakh crore in the year before. "Banks will continue to focus on all priority sector areas. This year more focus will be on direct lending...
More »2 crore Indian children study in English-medium schools by Anahita Mukherji
The last eight years have seen a staggering rise in the number of children studying in English-medium schools across the country. Data on school enrolment for 2010-11 shows that, for the first time, the number of children enrolled in English-medium schools from Classes I to VIII has crossed the two crore mark - a 274% rise since 2003-04. For the fourth year in a row, English is the second-largest medium of...
More »Small loans add up to lethal debts by Erika Kinetz
-AP The microfinance industry pursued a path of rapid business growth in recent years; two investigations now link it to debtor suicides First they were stripped of their utensils, furniture, mobile phones, television sets, ration cards and heirloom gold jewellery. Then, some of them drank pesticide. One woman threw herself into a pond. Another jumped into a well with her children. Sometimes, the debt collectors watched nearby. More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of...
More »Poverty high in south, north of Odisha: Report
-Pragativadi The extent of the poverty in southern and northern region of Odisha is still high and remains a matter of concern even as the poverty percentage points reduced to 29.69 per cent. According to the Odisha Economic Survey, 2011-12 report, even after sixty-four years of independence, Odisha has witnessed wide regional and social disparities in development. All regions have not developed uniformly so far. The annual report, which was circulated in the...
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