-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For a country which till recently had a weak civil society movement, India is now witnessing a boom in the NGO sector. With a Population of 1.2 billion, the country could well be the land of opportunities for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with the Central Bureau of Investigation conservatively estimating 20 lakh of them already operating in states and union territories. The mind-boggling figures boil down to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: At a time when people feel increasingly unsafe on the streets and spectre of terror attacks keeps security agencies on the toes, India stares at an abysmal police - Population ratio of 106 policemen per one lakh people - less than half of the UN recommended figure of 222. Even at the senior level, 1093 IPS posts are lying vacant, according to the latest government...

-PTI WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund today described India's National Food Security Act as a landmark legislation which is an important effort to ensure that a majority of the Population has access to adequate quantities of food at affordable prices. "The legislation is a landmark, representing the largest food security programme in the world, involving the distribution of subsidised grain to two-thirds of India's Population of 1.2 billion," the IMF said in...

A nation's prosperity is determined to a large extent by the health care received by its female Population. India's maternal mortality is down but we still have miles to go before we come close to achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets (Please see the links and graph below). The latest available figures released by the Office of Registrar General (India) provide some interesting trends on maternal health indicators. It...

-The Hindu Election Commission data show that 2.3 crore people in the 18-19 age bracket have been enrolled to vote, out of a total electorate of 81.5 crore This Lok Sabha election is likely to reflect the peak of India's electoral demographic dividend with 10% of voters likely to be first-time voters, a combination of electoral and demographic data shows. As fertility begins to decline - faster in the south than in...