A long-pending demand of civil society activists and NGOs, who are campaigning for probity, accountability, and transparency in public life, is going to be fulfilled soon. A welcome move has been made by the Government to enumerate and publish data on crimes committed against media persons, Right to Information activists, and whistleblowers in the forthcoming edition of Crime in India, which is published annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)...

-The Indian Express On average, 15 people chose death every hour across the country; one out of six victims housewives. On an average around 15 persons committed suicide every hour across the country in 2014, according to data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). As many as 1.31 lakh persons committed suicide across the country last year, with Maharashtra having the highest number of cases in any state. Among major...

There is a class angle to farmers' suicide in India. Close to three-quarter of farmers who committed suicide in 2014 were small and marginal farmers. ‘Bankruptcy or indebtedness’ accounted for one-fifth of total farmers’ suicide during 2014. The report entitled Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2014 by the National Crime Records Bureau of Ministry of Home Affairs clarifies the doubt that indebtedness and bankruptcy were major causes of farmers' suicide,...

-Financial ChroNICle Hunger has three major dimensions. First, is widespread undernutrition or calorie deprivation; second, there is inadequate consumption of pulses and other protein rich foods leading to protein hunger; third, the diet of the underprivileged sections of our society, normally deficient in micronutrients like iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin B12. If we wish to achieve the zero hunger challenge by 2025, we will have to pay concurrent attention...

-The Indian Express The Rural Development Ministry has washed its hands of the matter while the RGI too seems reluctant to claim ownership. Amid growing demands to release the caste figures compiled as part of the Socio Economic and Caste Census, various government authorities having been passing the buck to one another. Officials have been saying the caste data, compiled from the first such census since 1931, is part of a...