-The Hindu MADURAI: Muthumari's day starts at 4 a.m. She milks her cows in the cowshed behind the house and keeps cans of milk ready to be collected by a pickup van from a private dairy company. Then she turns to her household chores and sends her children off to school. Packing the day's food for herself, she proceeds towards the fields in her village at Udayanpatti. She is not just a...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Unemployment among Muslims is going down, marking an encouraging trend to gladden the champions of inclusive growth. The unemployment rate for the community declined from 2.3% in 2004-05 to 1.9% in 2009-10 in rural areas and from 4.1% to 3.2% in urban areas. However, a vast majority of Muslims in both rural and urban areas are not part of the organized workforce compared to other...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Chances of getting killed in a road accident is the highest in Amritsar and in the country's Mercedes capital Ludhiana. Latest data on road fatalities shows that at least six people died in every 10 road crashes in these two cities in 2012 against only three in Delhi, which recorded maximum fatalities in 2012. Though Mumbai recorded the highest number of accidents among 50 million-plus cities,...

-The Hindu blog The state that pioneered the successful noon-meal scheme may just have cooked up the next big idea. In his latest book, 'An Uncertain Glory - India and its contradictions', economist-philosopher and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has devoted almost ten pages to sing Tamil Nadu's praise for its efficient delivery of public services. "Tamil Nadu's capacity for innovation and creative thinking in matters of public administration is an important example for...

-Live Mint     Gujarat has grown faster than the national average—a point worth noting. But there’s no need for drumbeats  Gujarat's economic performance has been facing great scrutiny ever since chief minister Narendra Modi emerged as one of the top prime ministerial candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I have been asked to compare Gujarat's economic performance during the past decade with that in the past and separate fact from fiction...