-Hindustan Times The society runs 268 social welfare schools providing free education, food and clothes to nearly 1.5 lakh children from Class 5 to under-graduate courses. Hyderabad: The success story of residential schools being run for students belonging to marginalised sections by the Telangana government has Been chosen as a case study for the prestigious Harvard University in the United States of America. A communication to this effect from Harvard University was received...

-The Hindu The campaign to end open defecation can succeed only if it takes communities with it India’s declaration on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi that its rural areas are now open defecation-free will be acknowledged around the world as a milestone in its developmental journey. Cleanliness and sanitation were central to Gandhi’s concerns for his vast number of impoverished countrymen, and should ideally have Been pursued zealously by governments...

-The Hindu Business Line The drastic change in the monsoon pattern in recent years calls for a holistic — and quick — policy response First, credit where credit is due. India’s planning and administrative machinery grinds exceedingly slowly, but eventually, it does get there, provided there is a big enough spur, and the political will to see changes through. Nothing illustrates this better than the fallout of two super cyclones of near...

-The Indian Express Punjab government’s data states that 3,330 farmers have taken their lives due to farm debt since 2000 till date, of which 698 committed suicide in the past four years, most of them in the Malwa region. Over the past few years, ‘farm debt’ has Been one of the main reasons behind farmers and farm labourers committing suicide in Punjab. Farmer groups, state universities’ and government data have indicated...

-IANS In the early days after the quota of women's elected membership -- initially 33 per cent and later raised to 50 per cent in 20 of the 28 states -- was introduced, many women were acting as proxies for their male relative. UNITED NATIONS: Two women sarpanchs have brought to the UN the story of India changing the rural power structure by empowering women through a programme of gender equality that...