-The Indian Express More girls in Prime Minister Narendra Modi home state Gujarat seem to be reporting ‘sexual abuse' than anywhere else in the country. According to a recent status report published by an NGO - Save the Children - over 63 percent girls in Gujarat have reported sexual abuse which is highest in the country. Madhya Pradesh (57%) and West Bengal (56%) stand second and third respectively in the report titled,...

-The Hindu Chandigarh (Punjab): Contrary to opinion articulated through various quarters, empirical evidence and various studies have shown that the agronomic practices since the Green Revolution, especially dependence on the wheat-paddy cycle, had only improved the soil fertility in Punjab, where cropping intensity has reached 190 per cent. A reduction in fertilizer consumption notwithstanding, soil properties, presence of micro-nutrients and yields of crops have seen major improvement. While, noted economist, H.S. Shergill,...

-The Hindu Business Line   The CAG report details how these have neither helped industrial development nor boosted the Economy. Nearly a decade after the Special Economic Zones Act was brought into force, it is evident that the move has not helped industrial development. After examining SEZs in terms of background and objectives, fiscal incentives and facilities, approval process and administration, as well as life cycle, State-wise distribution and overall performance, parts of a...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Almost all of the most polluted cities in India are located in the north with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan dominating the list, according to a WHO report on the most polluted cities in the world published earlier this year. Incidentally, UP, Punjab and Delhi also lie in the fog belt of northern India and there's evidence to show that air pollution is worsening the problem....

-The Indian Express The Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households, released last week by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), is the second one ever to be done. The SAS of 2003 was necessitated by the agrarian crisis of the time. Farmer suicides had reached a peak, and the reference year for the survey, 2002-2003, had seen severe drought. The agricultural sector was in crisis, with growth rates slowing to...