-The Hindu Bhuira's women are coping with the higher workload by creating vastly more flexible family and community structures. And they are simultaneously pushing towards modernity much faster than their neighbours. Everyone in the village sneaks a glance when Upasana Kumari drives her White Maruti 800 to work. “Driving a car is intoxicating,” says Kumari. A winding, muddy, single lane road that starts from the edge of the hillock where Kumari’s house...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: States like Jharkhand and Bihar with acute shortage of doctors have seen few new medical colleges being opened in the last five years, while those with a glut of MBBS seats and doctors continue to allow new private colleges. This is despite doctors’ associations in these states warning against over-production of doctors. In Jharkhand, a state with the worst doctor-population ratio of just one doctor for...

-The Indian Express Getting the right remuneration is the most critical issue facing farmers. Government must provide policy, institutional framework for procurement. The farmer and his income is an important theme of discussion these days. A lot is being written on ways to increasing, and doubling, the farmers’ incomes by the year 2022. Viewed arithmetically, the income of a farmer is a function of three things — the cost of cultivation, production...

-Mongabay.com * Chhattisgarh has a strong mineral base, forests and a large tribal population. As a result there are many conflicts over land use and access to natural resources. * The Forest Rights Act 2006 has given legal space for tribal communities to access their resources. Chhattisgarh has achieved good numbers in the implementation of individual and forest rights. * However, there are problems in the qualitative implementation of the rights and these...

-The Telegraph Daltonganj: If you are a government schoolteacher in a Palamau village and want your biometric attendance recorded, better be nimble at climbing trees. The Raghubar Das government’s digital dream needs a leg up on a palash tree on the campus of an upgraded plus two school in Sohree Khas village in Satbarwa block, 41km from Daltonganj. Since September 25, when Palamau district administration gave the co-educational school with 800 students a...