KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...

Over 1000 Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders in Rajasthan, got free cell phones, instead of the free food grains. It seemed the UPA Government would rather let the food grains rot in open than distribute them for free to the poor. The Government felt it more important to distribute cell phones to the poor in Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Sachin Pilot's constituency of Ajmer. People of Phagi...

KEY TRENDS   • Section 105 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which provides for excluding 13 Central legislation, including Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, Atomic Energy Act, 1962, Railway Act 1989, National Highways Act 1956 and Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, from its purview, has been amended for payment of compensation with rigours $ • The amendments have now...

National Advisory Council member and former bureaucrat N C Saxena headed the four member panel which recommended that Orissa Mining Corporation (the company that was to supply bauxite ore to Vedanta’s Lanjigarh plant) not be permitted to mine on Niyamgiri hill. ET spoke to Mr Saxena a few hours after the environment ministry accepted his committee’s recommendations. Excerpts from the interview: What are the implications of today’s decision? Some sections of corporate India feel that laws such as...

National Advisory Council member and former bureaucrat N C Saxena headed the four member panel which recommended that Orissa Mining Corporation (the company that was to supply bauxite ore to Vedanta’s Lanjigarh plant) not be permitted to mine on Niyamgiri hill. ET spoke to Mr Saxena a few hours after the environment ministry accepted his committee’s recommendations. Excerpts from the interview: What are the implications of today’s decision? Some sections...