-The Times of India NEW DELHI: It is well known that quality of life greatly varies amongst different states within India. Some states have greater industrial or Agricultural output, higher income levels, better educational and health indicators while others are still struggling with backwardness. But what is much less known is that within states too there are wide and astonishing variations. State level averages often hide huge and unconscionable disparity on...

-The United Nations If demand for new land on which to grow food continues at the current rate, by 2050, high-end estimates are that area nearly the size of Brazil could be ruined, with vital forests, savannahs and grassland lost, the United Nations today warned in a new report. Up to 849 million hectares of natural land may be degraded, according to report, "Assessing Global Land Use: Balancing Consumption with Sustainable Supply",...

-The Indian Express Most forms of sexual harassment are difficult to define, let alone prove Ask any group of college-going women today to list what they consider sexual harassment and they are likely to come up with a list like the one below: Whistling or hissing, inviting by winking, soliciting or beckoning, writing songs with suggestive words or tunes, using amorous words, grasping and squeezing the wrist, caressing, placing a foot on the...

-Economic and Political Weekly Understanding the extent of financial inclusion of rural labour households is important since in the intercensal period 2001-11, the proportion of Agricultural labourers in the workforce increased by 3.5 percentage points. This paper examines progress in financial inclusion using information on indebtedness of rural labour households collected by the National Sample Survey Office as part of the surveys of employment and unemployment conducted in 2004-05 and 2009-10....

-Outlook A parliamentary committee has picked holes in the ambitious agriculture debt waiver and debt relief scheme of the UPA government saying it could not achieve its goals due to a variety of reasons including violation of guidelines and poor monitoring. Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its draft report on the scheme said there was a "flagrant display of financial and administrative indiscipline by the Department of Financial Services (of the...