-The Hindustan Times Odisha's Kalahandi district - once the cause of global embarrassment for India due to its high number of starvation deaths - today stands tall with a five-fold increase in its rice production since 1999, figures reveal. The agriculture ministry's recent crop data ranks Kalahandi among the top 25 rice producing districts of India. The three-year average of its rice production ending 2010-11 was 468,000 tonnes, compared with a three-year...

-The Hindu   They had sought inter alia universal social security cover for both organised and unorganised sectors Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said some of the demands raised by the various central trade unions, for which they organised a nationwide general strike for two days in February, were in advanced stage of consideration of the government. Those demands include universal social security cover for workers in both organised and unorganised sectors and...

-The Hindu Business Line It requires a change in mindset to reverse declining sex ratios. The state-wise child sex ratio (number of females per 1000 males in 0-6 years age group) in India during 2001-2011 declined except in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Mizoram, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu (see table). Interestingly, these are the same states that had recorded a significant fall in child sex ratio during 1991-2001. Adverse child sex ratio can have...

-The Hindu   Supersession only in exceptional circumstances, not for extraneous considerations The Supreme Court on Thursday decried the tendency of State governments superseding elected cooperative societies for political or extraneous reasons. "Supersession of an elected managing committee/board is an exception and [can] be resorted to only in exceptional circumstances," said a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra. Sending a warning to the States, the Bench imposed Rs. 1 lakh in costs...

-Down to Earth The country's 76 million poor have been denied the right to claim subsidised foodgrain under public distribution system The government has denied 76 million people in the country eligible to access public distribution system (PDS) the benefits of the food security system. For the past 20 years, the government has not cared to refresh its data and has been distributing foodgrain according to the population figure of 1991. Worse, the...