-The Economist A steadily rising Muslim population continues to fall behind IT TELLS you something hopeful perhaps that, for all the horror unleashed when two bombs laid by presumed militant Islamists ripped through a crowd in Hyderabad on February 21st, India’s public response has been muted. The blasts killed 16 and injured 117. Both the method of the attack (bombs in metal tiffin boxes strapped to bicycles) and its location (near a...

-The New Indian Express Bhubaneshwar: The State Government has decided to implement the Focused Area Development (FAD) scheme for the welfare of tribal people for the next 10 years with an expenditure of `15.9 crore per year. The scheme was launched in 2012-13 for providing alternative sources of livelihood to the tribal people. The decision to continue the FAD scheme for the next 10 years was taken at a high level meeting...

-The Business Standard Indian plantations bloom in Ethiopia at the cost of the livelihoods and homes of the tribals If there is “blood diamond”, there is also such a thing as “blood maize”, “blood soya” and “blood pulses”. These come all the way from plantations in Ethiopia and other countries with repressive regimes. India, which claims to shun blood diamonds coming from African mines that use slave labour, is enthusiastically backing exploitation of...

-The Hindu Koynanagar (Maharashtra): First, a dam, then an earthquake and finally a tiger reserve — families in Satara district’s Koyna have been displaced thrice in one generation. In 1960, the people had to move, paving the way for the Koyna dam; in 1967 following the earthquake and then for the Koyna tiger reserve in 1985, says Jagannath Vibhute, an activist of the Shramik Mukti Dal and one of the many...

-Live Mint Proposal aimed at beefing up security, besides making sure development reaches neglected parts of India A day after the government pledged the partial decontrol of sugar in the next fortnight, the Union cabinet on Thursday approved a set of significant measures aimed at tackling Maoist insurgency and asserting its strategic hold over an area claimed by neighbouring China.   The measures approved involve upgrading rural road connectivity with special emphasis on...