-TheWire.in Most of the ‘reforms’ that are being introduced to address poor delivery of social services are silent on the issue of inadequate human resources, among other shortfalls in capacity. The poor performance of the public sector especially in education, health and other social services has been the subject of a lot of debates in the last few decades. The dominant narrative has attributed implementation failures to corruption, lack of accountability, poor...

-The Hindu Business Line They account for a third of the agricultural workforce, but don’t get the benefits and opportunities the menfolk enjoy India celebrated its first Women Farmer’s Day on October 15, but the word farmer or kisan is still seen as being synonymous with a male farm worker. This perception is built on two assumptions — first, farming is a masculine profession; and, second, when women are involved in farm...

-The Hindu Business Line The gel, poly-Oxime has been prepared by InStem researchers from nucleophilic polymer New Delhi: Indian farmers usually do not wear any protective gear while spraying chemicals in fields. This exposes them to harmful toxics contained in pesticides, causing severe health impacts and even death in extreme cases. Indian scientists have now developed a protective gel to address this problem. The gel can be applied on skin and can break...

-The Hindu Housing prices have increased in the first quarter of 2018-19 compared to the same period in 2017-18, according to the Reserve Bank of India's latest House Price Index (HPI) release. HPI is an indicator of change in housing prices. This means that if the HPI has increased, house prices have increased on an average, and vice versa. It takes into account the average price of houses per square metre, size...

-Livemint.com The BJP’s ability to balance the demands of its upper caste and tribal voters in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will shape the election results in December Will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) successfully tide over anti-incumbency in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Rajasthan? Or will the Congress manage to return to power in these states and gain momentum in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections? The answers to these...