-The Indian Express Balimukh village, Morigaon: For 11-year-old Jesmina Begum, daughter of Abdul Motin of Atigaon, a village in the flood-ravaged Morigaon district in central Assam, commuting to school has become not only difficult but also dangerous in the recent weeks. “We know that five children drowned in a boat capsize on Tuesday. But what to do? We can’t stop going to school,” Jesmina said. The floods have washed away the road to...

-The Hindu For much of India, toilets are all about an issue of sanitation, health, privacy and dignity, and gender rights Let’s forget about what Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said and focus on what he is trying to do. It is not an easy campaign to launch and run. Imagine someone asking what do you do? And having to answer, I promote toilets — toilet construction and toilet use....

-The Economic Times A new book by Bibek Debroy on Gujarat looks at how this much-talked about state has performed in economic terms. The author argues history, luck and administrative clarity have been the determining factors. There has been a discernible pickup in Gujarat's growth performance since the 10th Plan (2002-07), the five-year Plans being natural periods for breaking up the timeline. It's tempting to argue that there is nothing exceptional in...

-The Indian Express Bhubaneswar : Aiming to reach the poorest of poor, the Naveen Patnaik government on Tuesday started Palli Sabhas and Gram Sabhas in 48,000 villages under 6,236 gram panchayats through which several developmental projects and schemes such as NREGS, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and old age pension would be executed. The programme termed “Gram Sabha Shashaktikaran Karyakrama” would continue till October 18 and give the grampanchayats a say in selecting the...

-The Economic Times When the country was growing at more than 8 per cent for about a decade, services and manufacturing were the darlings of policy-makers, investors and talking heads. Agriculture, a segment that employs nearly half the hundred crore population of the country, was hardly mentioned even in passing. This year, thanks to a poor monsoon, suddenly the farmers are the centre of India's growth story, or the lack of...