-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government's ambitious manufacturing thrust has run into trouble even before it could take off with many states expressing difficulty in acquiring the vast tracts of land needed to set up dedicated zones. Five states have written to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, requesting it to consider revising the minimum land requirement (from existing 5,000 hectare) for developing National Manufacturing Investment Zones (NMIZs). These include Assam,...

-The Hindu Students in government schools in Assam study only for two-and-a-half hours every day at the primary level compared to five-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours in the rest of the country, an official study has shown. Similarly, the total number of working days in primary schools each year is 180 in Nagaland and Manipur and a maximum of 253 in Bihar and Jharkhand with lower than average literacy rates. But in most...

-The Hindu The south leads in the number of medical and nursing seats, with for-profit private colleges dominating the scene. It will take major capacity expansion in the government sector to meet WHO norms on access to health professionals. India has achieved major organisational and technological successes but the health system's performance is abysmal. This cannot be attributed to poverty. It is poor health that places India 134th in the Human Development...

-The Hindu   Asian Centre for Human Rights blames Centre, States for continuing assault There was a 336 per cent increase in child rape cases in the country between 2001 and 2011, a large number of the crimes committed in juvenile justice homes run and aided by the government. Citing National Crime Records Bureau statistics, the latest report on child sexual assaults in India says 48,338 rape cases were reported during the decade. Tip of...

-PTI Jamshedpur: Free Legal Aid Committee (FLAC), an NGO engaged in spreading awareness against superstition of daayan (witch), demanded a ban on Emraan Hashmi's film Ek Thi Daayan. Kannan Iyer's Ek Thi Daayan, a supernatural film, features Emraan Hashmir, Huma Qureshi, Konkona Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin. Prem Chand alias Premji of FLAC, said he had recently written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee demanding immediate ban on the film as...