-The Hindu     Enhancing the basket of contraceptive choices can reduce maternal mortality rate, says a family planning review Family planning has made a silent comeback in the national discourses. This time, focussing more on concomitant improvement in the health of the people rather than limiting the number of children. India had changed its strategy on family planning in 2010 with the other developing countries from that of merely reducing population to that of...

-The Hindu   Even after five decades of feminism and female participation in the productive economy, the problem of women falling off the organised workforce remains a global phenomenon Former Lehman Brothers Chief Financial Officer Erin Callan recently urged women not to work too hard at their professions. Her comments in The New York Times about the dangers of losing the work-life balance came on the eve of the publication of Facebook COO...

-PTI Language papers will be of qualifying nature, marks won't be counted for ranking Following a nationwide controversy over the changes it had suggested in the civil services mains examination, the Union Public Service Commission on Thursday dropped the requirement of mandatory English language paper. The UPSC, whose move to give added weightage to English language, led to uproar within and outside Parliament and forced the government to keep it in abeyance, has...

-The Hindu Even as the Maharashtra government congratulated itself for addressing issues of the transgender population in a draft policy announced earlier this month, one of the provisions of the policy, which states people being transgender can be prevented through medical care, has angered the marginalised community. By this, the government has failed to acknowledge that being transgender is a choice of many people, the community's empathisers say. The draft of the...

-The Business Standard Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi professor and development economist Reetika Khera tells Sreelatha Menon that the food Bill may not be a leap ahead, but it is certainly a step forward * The food Bill is a guarantee for lifelong dependence on government doles. As an economist, can one defend such a policy? The food Bill should be seen as an investment. "Labour" is India's most important asset. In that sense,...