-The Times of India CHENNAI: Asian countries have failed to end hunger despite economic growth, says agriculturist M S Swaminathan who is known as the 'Father of the Green Revolution in India.' "Livelihood security and food security depend on agriculture. We have not achieved this despite a spectacular economic and technological growth," Swaminathan said while speaking at the 'Phenotyping for Agriculture Sustainability' conference in Chennai on Monday. Referring to the Food Security Bill...

-Tehelka In their struggle for forest rights, the Baigas of Madhya Pradesh have adopted a form of protest dating back to the 1930s, says Shirish Khare An idol placed under a banyan tree passes for a temple in Masna village in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh. Surrounded by dense forests, the village is inhabited by the "primitive" Baiga tribe. "The government has taken over our land and enclosed it with barbed...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Children in West Bengal and Bangladesh are presumed to share the same distribution of genetic height potential. In West Bengal they are richer, on average, and are therefore slightly taller. However, when wealth is held constant, children in Bangladesh are taller. This gap can be fully accounted for by differences in open defecation, and especially by open defecation in combination with differences in women's status and maternal...

-The Hindustan Times A sea of young people on a Delhi Metro last week offered a glimpse into the despair within young India. Most had taken the train from Delhi University — a hub of students from across the country — to the heart of the city, to take a test and apply for a job with a national bank. But there were only a few thousand vacancies — and 100,000 youngsters...

-The Hindustan Times Kota (Rajasthan): The level of education among tribal children is dismal in the state, a survey has found. The reasons are the lack of awareness about the importance of education and their nomadic nature. The Kota Heritage Society, a voluntary organisation, conducted the survey on the educational status of nomadic and denotified tribes of Rajasthan. The Indian Council of Social Science Research of the Union human resource development...