-The New Indian Express BENGALURU: Social discrimination and lack of economic stability force socio-economic minorities to migrate to other villages or cities, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) chairman Sukhdeo Thorat said on Tuesday. Hence, the state government should ensure social equality in villages, Prof Thorat said while inaugurating a seminar on ‘Distress labour migration within and towards southern Indian states’ organised by the Indian Social Institute. A Labour and Migration...

-Business Standard Why the public-private partnership model in education doesn't get a show of hands from its naysayers   Jaipur   July 8, 1 pm: Around 500 school teachers were protesting outside the building of Shiksha Sankul, which houses the various educational departments in the state. They burnt effigies of the education minister, demanding the Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government withdraw the order on increased man-days. The teaching fraternity wanted the government to revisit...

-Hindustan Times A nutrition plan within the National Food Security Act meant for pregnant women and lactating mothers, a vulnerable group that skews India’s hunger indices, looks quietly buried. It still runs as a trial in 52 districts, two years after the landmark legislation was signed into law. The Centre hasn’t yet begun budgeting for it to expand the maternal health scheme to cover the whole country. While a parallel scheme under...

-Economic and Political Weekly A survey to identify who the poor are and how many are actually poor is necessary if programmes and benefits targeted at the needy are to reach them. The Socio Economic Caste Census, of which partial results have been published, was intended to do this. Yet, even a cursory look at the figures indicates that they call for a willing suspension of disbelief. N C Saxena (naresh.saxena@gmail.com) was...

-The Hindu The ‘development’ discourse serves the same purpose as the colonial apparatus but without the bad press. After 67 years of failing to eliminate deprivation in India, is it time to look for new ideas? The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, which hit the headlines earlier this month, tells us that half the households in rural India are landless, dependant on casual manual labour, and live in deprivation. By suggesting...