-The United Nations The last 20 years has seen a surge in the number of women employed in senior and middle management positions, according to a new United Nations report, which notes that although all-male company boards are decreasing in number, more must be done to achieve gender parity. The study, released by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and entitled Women in Business and Management: Gaining Momentum, covers 80 of the 108...

-The Hindustan Times New Delhi: For a long time, 12- year-old Rohan, an HIV positive child, was in pain but could not comprehend why. For months, he passed blood with his stools. Finally, a counsellor drew a sketch after Rohan pointed to his mouth and back and the truth emerged: He was regularly being forced into oral and anal sex. Rohan then drew a picture of Ashish, one of his co-inmates at...

-The Indian Express Lucknow: Indiscriminate extraction of groundwater is continuing unabated in Uttar Pradesh with the number of blocks over-exploiting the natural resource registering three-fold hike in seven years. Number of such blocks is now pegged at 111, as per the latest data compiled by the Uttar Pradesh Ground Water Department for 2011. The groundwater data is compiled by the department every two years and analysed, before being released. As per...

-Down to Earth It provides farmers with services to improve productivity and find better prices A non-profit based in Telangana, working on agricultural research and development, has launched a low-cost phone cum tablet computer-phablet-to benefit small holder farmers. "GreenPHABLET will allow information to be precisely targeted to individual smallholder farmers, helping them to purchase inputs at a lower price and get a better price for their produce. It will also link them to...

-The Hindu Economic diversification in rural India, involving the emergence and growth of non-agricultural activities, is considered an important means of increasing employment and per capita incomes, and improving standards of living. However, non-agricultural activities themselves are of various kinds differing in terms of productivity and the returns they yield. So while the development of some activities may point to rural dynamism, many others exist and grow because of the distress-driven...