The last rites of Ajit Bhattacharjea, one of the towering figures of Indian media, were performed here on Tuesday after a large number of his friends and admirers paid rich tributes to him. Mr. Bhattacharjea, a leading figure of the right to information movement, died at his Panchsheel Enclave residence on Monday after prolonged illness. He was 87. The last rites were performed by his son at the Lodhi Crematorium. BJP leader L.K....

The world population is estimated to reach nine billion by 2050. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that global food production needs to increase 70 per cent by 2050 compared to average 2005-07 levels to feed the rising global population. Clearly, a large part of the consumption will happen in India and China; which would require an additional 1.6 billion hectares of land to be brought into cultivation compared to...

Number of centres to be frozen There are nearly 2,300 PHCs in the State Freezing the number will help improve the PHCs Ten of the 30 districts in the State have very poor healthcare services while an equal number of districts have good facilities. Given the need to streamline the system, the State Government has decided to freeze the number of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and utilise the available funds for improving the...

Quota for all elected Posts in panchayats, mandals, ZPPs Decision by government on the issue to improve representation for women in local bodies Draft amendment to Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act being scrutinised by the Law Department Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy said that there would be 50 per cent reservation for women in the next local body elections in the State. Living up to his promise made during the International Women's Day...

India is now home to 17.5% of humanity, as the population touched 1.21 billion, up 17.4% from 2001, according to the provisional figures of the 2011 Census. The rate of growth of population showed a sharp downward trend, and fell 3.9 percentage points from 2001. The country Posted its worst child sex ratio since independence, as the ugly preference for the male child in many parts of the country zoomed alongside...