-The Hindu   5.6 per cent of the households now comprise single couple There is a quantum jump in the number of families going nuclear in Andhra Pradesh in just about a decade (2001-2011) with 75.6 per cent of the households now comprising single couple, indicating a major societal shift from the traditional joint family system, Census 2011has revealed. The rate at which families are turning nuclear in the State could be gauged from...

-PTI With agriculture share in GDP halving to 15 per cent in the last two decades, a government report card today called for major reforms, from marketing to investment, and new technologies for accelerating farm growth.  The report on 'State of Indian Agriculture 2011-12', tabled in the Lok Sabha said, "Achieving an 8-9 per cent rate of growth in overall gross domestic produce (GDP) may not deliver much in terms of poverty...

-BBC More than a third of candidates elected in the recent elections in five Indian states face criminal charges, according to a study by an independent watchdog. The Association for Democratic Reforms said 35% of the legislators - 252 of the 690 - had cases pending. The ruling Congress party fared poorly in state elections that have just been held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. These polls are seen as a...

Four months after Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh requested Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct special audit of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in highest spending states of the country, CAG officials have started the special audit in Uttar Pradesh. The state gets sanction of about 20 per cent of the yearly budget of MGNREGA across the country and CAG auditors have started looking into the records and...

Just over five years ago, a global study had labelled India the world’s “lone polio exporter”, prompting the United Nations secretary-general to write a letter of concern to Manmohan Singh. Even three years ago, anti-polio workers in western Uttar Pradesh, then the disease’s epicentre in India, were often abused and driven away when they came to the villages for the vaccination programme. Such memories today flooded into the minds of doctors and...