-The Hindu The currencies of India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey have fallen quite dramatically against the dollar in the past few months. Whatever their domestic weaknesses, the reasons for this unprecedented decline - ranging between 13 to 21 per cent - are primarily global. In the past 48 hours, as tension mounts in West Asia, an already unprecedented situation has become even more difficult. On Wednesday, the rupee, as...

-Economic and Political Weekly The government has notified a Draft Land Reforms Policy which, on paper, has all the requisites of an earnest programme. Yet, the near total failure of earlier efforts at land reforms in India leave little room for hope that something substantial will at last be done to combat landlessness. Harsh Mander (manderharsh@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, and works with survivors of mass violence,...

-The Hindu How rich your State was the year you were born is a direct predictor of how tall you will grow, new research shows. But the relationship between a State's income and the height of its residents is growing weaker over time, possibly as a result of inequality within States. Faster growing States will not necessarily get healthier and taller at an equally fast rate, especially if their inequality...

-The Hindu PALAKKAD (Kerala): The Health Department, in a report sent to the Union Ministry of Health on Tuesday, has noted a steep rise in the number of abortion cases among tribal women in the Attappady settlements in Palakkad district. The report said "during the last 20 days 10 abortion cases were recorded among tribal women in Attappady." Eight cases were reported in July, 2013, seven in June, and 11 in May. During...

-The Hindu Overcoming son preference in India remains a daunting challenge as even educated women are prone to it Have women fared better than men, and girls better than boys in the last decade or so? In the din over a dramatic reduction in poverty in the period 2009/10-2011/12 that is unlikely to die down, deep questions about the discrimination and deprivation that women face from the womb to the rest of...