-The Indian Express Eight years after the Sachar committee report on the condition of Muslims and creation of a Ministry of Minority Affairs, a post-Sachar evaluation committee, headed by former JNU professor Amitabh Kundu, has concluded that though a start has been made in addressing development deficits of the community, government interventions have not quite matched in scale the large numbers of the marginalised. Poverty levels among Muslims, the committee found, remained...

-Livemint The statistics showed that the proportion of underweight children had fallen 12.8 percentage points since 2005 to 30.7% In its latest Global Hunger Index report released last month, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) published new statistics on India's child malnutrition rates, which showed a dramatic decline in the proportion of underweight children. The statistics, based on a survey conducted by the ministry of women and child development and the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prior police verification for issue of fresh passports may soon be a thing of the past, with the ministry of external affairs (MEA) proposing to rely on aadhaar card for identification of the applicant and on the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) database for validation of his/her criminal antecedents. With the applicant's self-declaration on aspects like citizenship, criminal antecedents, criminal proceedings, summons/warrants etc also thrown...

-The Hindu Decision comes amidst reports of suspected diphtheria deaths Jaipur (Rajasthan): Extending the scope of the Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojana (JSSY) with an aim to bring down the infant mortality rate (IMR) in the State, the Rajasthan government has decided to provide free treatment to newborns till they complete one year. This will include diagnostics, medicine and free transportation facilities. The scheme is applicable to all children born in public health facilities....

-The Economic Times Dinkar Patil, a farmer from Buldhana district in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, normally cultivates cotton on his 13-acre farm land. This year, however, he has skipped the cotton crop and opted for soyabean and tur dal. "The rainfall started late. I did not cultivate cotton because of the delayed rains and the huge increase in cost of cultivation of the crop," said Patil. He is expecting a fall of about...