-Live Mint The policy planners should be revisiting the fundamentals of the growth strategy India published a news story quoting from a research paper published by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) on the vexing issue of employment generation in the Indian economy. Referring to the compelling phase of unprecedented growth (when the average increase was 9%) in the latter half of the last decade, the IAMR study said, “Employment in...

-The Hindu Caste might be cast in stone judging from the way the dominant discourse gets conducted in India “Caste is the most overwhelming factor in Indian life. Those who deny it in principle also accept it in practice. Life moves within the frontiers of caste and cultured men speak in soft tones against the system of caste, while its rejection in action just does not occur to them...” Socialist thinker Ram...

-Kashmir Times If psychologist Ashis Nandy had planned to ignite a potentially ugly controversy at the Jaipur Literary Festival, he couldn't have done better than by insinuating intimate links between corruption and Dalits, Adivasis and Other Backward Classes. After warning that he was about to make a "very undignified" and "almost vulgar" statement, "which will shock you", Nandy said: "It is a fact that most of the corrupt come from the...

-The Hindu NCPCR member visited area for investigation following reports from NGOs The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has detected large-scale child labour at brick kilns in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan and expressed surprise over the district administration’s indifference to the issue. Of the 300 brick kilns functioning in Bhilwara, only 45 are registered with the district administration. NCPCR member and Working Committee on Child Labour in Mines chairman Yogesh...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Is India witnessing a spurt in unnecessary hysterectomies? Data released by international charity organization Oxfam on February 6 says as much. The agency said that unnecessary hysterectomies were being performed in Indian private hospitals to economically exploit poor women as well as government-run insurance schemes. A right to information (RTI) request filed by one of Oxfam's local NGOs in the Dausa district of Rajasthan showed that 258...