-Business Standard The wide disparity between the best healthcare & quackery that much of the population must endure is partly to blame for India's apathy Whether Indians in ancient times discovered algebra and the Pythagoras theorem before "selflessly" passing them on to the Arabs and the Greeks as Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan said last week is for agile historians to ponder. Widely accepted is that Indians in ancient times studied...

-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 Hindustan Times Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh is the worst place to be born in India - and it has been so for more than a decade. For 11th year in a row, the state has registered the highest infant mortality rate in the country, says the latest Sample Registration System report for 2013 released on Sunday by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Infant mortality rate is the number of deaths...

-The Indian Express More girls in Prime Minister Narendra Modi home state Gujarat seem to be reporting ‘sexual abuse' than anywhere else in the country. According to a recent status report published by an NGO - Save the Children - over 63 percent girls in Gujarat have reported sexual abuse which is highest in the country. Madhya Pradesh (57%) and West Bengal (56%) stand second and third respectively in the report titled,...

-The Hindu As solid waste management gets privatised, they will need to be rehabilitated Chennai: Keeping in mind the possibility of providing social entitlements to ragpickers and integrating them into an increasingly privatised solid waste management system, the Chennai Corporation is taking steps to issue identity cards to them. Working with Transparent Chennai, the civic body is conducting a survey. Last month, it enumerated the ragpickers at Kodungaiyur dumping yard. "There are about 200...