-PTI NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday lowered the country's economic growth rate during the previous Congress-led UPA regime, shaving off over 1 percentage point from the only year when India posted double-digit GDP growth post liberalisation and from each of the three years with 9-plus per cent expansion. Recalibrating data of past years using 2011-12 as the base year instead of 2004-05, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated that India's GDP...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: “The truthfulness of the phrase violence begets violence seemed to be unfolding before our eyes.” This statement in a report of one of the inspection teams tasked with auditing 110 institutional homes in Bihar, including the one in Muzaffarpur, summed up its shock at the evidence of physical, sexual and emotional abuse unearthed across these homes. The state sponsored audit report by Koshish, Tata Insititute of...

-Down to Earth Farmers worldwide face existential threat as milk prices slump but dairy processing giants are making a windfall. Down To Earth travels to Germany, Kenya and several Indian states to take stock of the global crisis Call it the fallout of faulty farm policies of the rich or simply a demand-supply gap, dairy farmers across the world are crying for help as global milk prices slump. In India, the biggest...

-The Times of India GURUGRAM: Many years back, Sujata Sahu was hiking the heights of Ladakh when she came upon local teachers heading back to Leh to get midday-meal supplies and uniforms for their students, a journey that usually takes a minimum of four days. Seeing such commitment inspired this resident of Sohna Road to start an initiative to improve education for kids in the remotest of villages. "Since then, I have...

-Hindustan Times There’s no shortage of talent. For over two decades, women have occupied 33% of seats in panchayats and done so well that states like Bihar bumped up their quota to 50%. Exactly 101 years after the 19th Amendment granted American women suffrage, a record 116 women, including the first Muslim, the first Native American and the youngest ever, were voted to the US Congress. India, too, has the highest number...