-Outlook Bhubaneshwar: 'Universal Identity Cards' would be issued to people with disabilities for which a survey would begin next month to ascertain the exact number of disabled people in the country, Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot said today. "The census figure does not provide a clear and proper picture on the actual number of disabled persons. Our ministry has decided to conduct a country-wide survey to identify people...

-IPS News MALKANGIRI (Odisha)- Scattered across 31 remote hilltop villages on a mountain range that towers 1,500 to 4,000 feet above sea level, in the Malkangiri district of India's eastern Odisha state, the Upper Bonda people are considered one of this country's most ancient tribes, having barely altered their lifestyle in over a thousand years. Resistant to contact with the outside world and fiercely skeptical of modern development, this community of under...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's poorest and socially underprivileged people seem to have benefited the least from a set of government programmes launched over the past decade to reduce personal expenses on health care, research suggests. A team of health economists has found that the financial burden of health care on India's poorest 20 per cent, Scheduled Castes, scheduled tribes and Muslims has outpaced that on the richest 20 per cent and...

-The Hindu Mangalore (Karnataka): The Department of Food and Civil Supplies is going ahead with its initiative to provide clean and safe cooking fuel to the poor. All districts have been told to push for providing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connection to below the poverty line (BPL) ration card holders for free. Department Commissioner Harsh Gupta told The Hindu that field-level reports had shown that there was preference for LPG connection. But...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: The state government may be celebrating the next two weeks as the 'women's empowerment fortnight'. But the census 2011 data, which was released recently, shows that nearly 70.33% of the women in Gujarat who are in their prime working age group of 15 years to 34 years, are of no economic value for their families or state. A large section of these are literate and are...