-The Hindu The absence of state Accountability is at the core of issues facing tribal communities The Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India, under the chairmanship of sociologist Virginius Xaxa, was circulated last week. The 431-page report details the situation of tribal communities: Scheduled Tribes, de-notified tribes and particularly vulnerable tribal communities. Taking on board the findings and demands of social...

-The Indian Express The first nine months of the new BJP government has only underscored its anti-poor, anti-rural image. The substantive and substantial changes in rural development have been restrictive in nature. The new government has worked to undermine the legal and financial framework of MGNREGA, substantially weakened the provisions of the land acquisition act through an ordinance and, through year-end budget cuts, they have undermined almost every social sector programme, reportedly...

-The Hindu Business Line Netizens up in arms on social media, seek better law instead The Centre on Wednesday asked Internet Service Providers (ISP) to block 32 websites citing national security concerns, especially from terror group ISIS. The move created a flutter on social networking sites, as most of the Web sites, such as archive.org, vimeo.com, github.com, pastebin.com, codepad.org and paste2.org, were being used by global communities like application developers for free movies...

-The Hindustan Times Despite constitutional protection, positive discrimination policies and earmarked budgets, India's 104 million tribal people remain among the poorest and most nutritionally deprived social groups. In 2005-06, 54% of tribal children under five years of age were stunted, which is a measure of chronic undernutrition; this is well above the national average of 48%. Studies carried out between 2006 and 2013 in different states reveal that the percentage of...

-The Times of India AURANGABAD: With Marathwada being most affected by drought and near-total loss of crops forcing more than 500 farmers to commit suicide during the past one year, noted economist and former member of Maharashtra State Planning Board, H M Desarda, has suggested to the state government that there is immediate need to return to the low external input sustainable agriculture (LEISA), which alone can rescue farmers from the...