-ETV/ News 18 Claiming that the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides destroyed Punjab in the two decades, volunteers from Punjab - once an agri-role model-have cautioned Madhya Pradesh against the same. These volunteers from Kheti Virasat Mission - a group of volunteer activists from different fields working in Punjab for promoting organic farming, said this while participating in Vikalp Mela as part of Bhopal gas tragedy's 30th anniversary events in...

-The Indian Express Three members of a Dalit family in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar were killed, one of them decapitated before being thrown into a dry well in Jawkhede Khalsa village, on the night of October 20. The investigation is still on and the jury out on whether it was an act of caste violence or the result of a dispute. In recent times, however, it seems there is a surge in the...

-The Indian Express The recent proposal by the National Commission for Women to legalise prostitution has opened up an old debate. It is a misnomer that legalisation would lead to improving the lives of women in prostitution by way of reduced harassment by the police and provision of healthcare facilities. Advocates of legalisation should first examine the experience of countries where prostitution has been legalised. The mere fact that licensing has...

-The Hindu Silicosis deaths in Rajasthan mines leave behind a trail of young widows The Karauli-Dholpur-Bharatpur mining belt in eastern Rajasthan, which produces the country's best quality red sandstone, also has the largest number of young widows, most of them below 40 years. The older ones were widowed some decades ago, and worse, young girls almost see their future unfold before them. The common link: they were married to miners who died of...

-Business Standard India's mixed record on the Millennium Development Goals is a pointer to policy priorities In 2000, the United Nations held a Millennium Summit, at which the membership adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Spanning a range of development indicators - poverty, gender, health, education and the environment - the MDGs essentially established a set of targets for the global community to achieve by 2015. The framework sets eight broad...