-Livemint.com The Labour Force Participation Rate for women is significantly lower than that for males in both rural and urban areas, according to the survey New Delhi: In both rural and urban India, women are not present in significant numbers in the labour force, according to the Economic Survey 2015-16. Even though the proportion of the economically active population (15-59 years) increased from 57.7% to 63.3% between 1991 and 2013 (Sample Registration...

-The Hindu The primary health-care system in India, intended to enable affordable health care, has not delivered on its promise. Rural, public health facilities are unable to attract, retain and ensure the regular presence of trained medical professionals. Health centres and hospitals in the public sector have proliferated but they are distributed inequitably. India may have one government hospital bed for every 1,833 people, but the reality is that while in...

-The Hindu “Commodities that are primarily consumed by the rich have a low tax rate” India’s rich feed off subsidies worth over Rs. 1 lakh crore a year that are meant for the poor, according to the Economic Survey. And this figure only considers the subsidies on six commodities, two public utilities — the Railways and electricity — and one small savings scheme, the Public Provident Fund. “There are a fair amount of...

-The Indian Express The census figures are in line with the report of the Sachar Committee that was set up by the UPA government to assess the status of Indian Muslim. Muslims have the lowest share of working people among all communities, as per the Census 2011 data. The Ministry of Minority Affairs admitted this while replying to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha Thursday. Quoting from the census data, Minister of...

-The Hindu The lack of any established principles or credible data prompts demands for reservation such as those of the Patels and Jats.The solution lies in shuffling reserved categories. It is only when Jats, Gujjars or Muslims demand reservation, and particularly when these demands become aggressive, that our political system suddenly wakes up and takes notice. However, this notice is simply confined to ascertaining whether the specific group demanding reservation is worthy...