-The Hindu What matters more for development: location or community? New official data show that while some communities do better than others in sex ratio and literacy, State-level differences can be as important. Newly released data from the Census shows that on average nationwide, Christians, followed by Muslims, continue to have the most gender-equal child sex ratios of 958 girls for every 1,000 boys and 943 respectively. Buddhists follow, with Hindus, Jains...

-The Times of India Two religious communities of India, Sikhs and Jains, have turned the corner on child sex ratio while all others showed further dips, as did the national average, according to fresh Census 2011 data released on Wednesday. Child sex ratio is the number of girls aged 0-6 years for every 1,000 boys in the same age group. It is a crucial measure for India where preference for sons and...

-The Indian Express On census, Christians and conversions, Surjit Bhalla has tortured his data to make it say what he wants to hear. Last week, Surjit S. Bhalla wrote a piece in The Indian Express titled ‘Census, Christians, Conversions’. After going over well-trodden ground on what the recently released Census 2011 figures meant, he came to the crux of the matter as he saw it: Why hasn’t the Christian population fallen...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government has asked all central ministries and departments to furnish data on recruitment of minorities during 2014-15, and give reasons for any decline in percentage of such recruitment. This is part of the review of the prime minister's new 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities. Though the ministries/departments were scheduled to submit such data to the department of personnel and training by...

-The Indian Express Delhi’s slums house people whose work makes the lives of its better-off citizens easier but they themselves offer the worst of living conditions. Lakhs of people are denied the basic need for a toilet, breeding indignity and infections. The city’ urban shelter agency DUSIB’s report on how to make the city slum-free is a challenge for any government, especially one elected on a pro-poor agenda. The Indian Express...