-The New Indian Express The recent socio-economic and caste census (SECC) 2011 data on deprivations is profoundly disquieting. At the global level too, the latest data on economic inequality is equally disconcerting. That 75 per cent of rural households in India earn less than Rs 5,000 per month or around Rs 33 per capita per day and that over 40 per cent are landless and work as manual casual labourers even...

-The Hindu Ramaswamy R. Iyer, a water policy expert who wrote extensively for The Hindu, saw rivers as inextricable parts of the lives of communities. Ramaswamy R. Iyer passed away on September 9 in Delhi after a severe bout of viral fever. The water policy expert, who last held the position of an honorary research professor at the Centre for Policy Research, earlier served as Secretary of Water Resources in the Central...

-The Hindu District Mineral Foundations were set up to protect the interests of Adivasi communities who have borne the costs of mining. But they are flawed in their current form Through 2011-13, dogged investigators from the Justice M. B. Shah Commission on illegal mining toured the rust-red villages, forests and rivers of northern Odisha, and trawled through reams of official records including from the environment, minerals, railways, and revenue departments. They met...

-The Hindu Has the social media converted people into a lynch mob that seeks out justice and passes judgement instantly, without bothering to hear both sides of the story? The Internet has changed the way we communicate in more ways than we can imagine. Apart from being a medium to share pictures and updates with family and friends, social media has also become an arena where political debates are a commonplace and...

-Business Standard Study on reservation in schools New Delhi: The Delhi government recently ordered all nurseries, playschools and pre-primary schools, set up on land allotted by the government, to reserve 25 per cent of seats for poor students. This is in continuation of a 2007 order of the then government directing 395 private schools to reserve 20 per cent of new admissions for poor students. The decision to reserve seats in such bastions...