Stone quarries, brick kilns, sand mining and silk weaving are stealing SC/ST children out of school in Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts of Tamilnadu. Krithika Ramalingam reports on the hard reality these children face.

The MoEF's assessment of the environment, which should be the foundation for strategic planning in the ministry, is highly inadequate, and is a poor second to similar efforts by environmentalists themselves, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

Much has been written on the inhuman atrocities inflicted on women during the 2013 riots in Muzaffarnagar and the deplorable conditions in the relief camps. Saumya Uma draws attention beyond these to how the violence has robbed women of their basic rights and voices in myriad ways.

Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and other traditional food companies are all betting the rise of meatless alternatives could permanently change the way people look at meat. But are they right? WSJ’s Akane Otani explains. Photo: Beyond Meat

Universal's World War I epic "1917" scored the top prize at the 77th Golden Globe Awards honoring the best in film and television. While Netflix had the most nominations for its films and shows, several traditional studios took home major prizes. Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBC/Reuters

This year's CES tech show in Las Vegas might not have had an overarching theme, but it certainly was high on invention. WSJ's Katherine Bindley tries out the most interesting contraptions on display, from Segway's new personal transporter and Samsung's rotating TV to a pair of huge robotic arms and, yes, motion-tracking pajamas. Photo/Video: Emily Prapuolenis

Oprah Winfrey, Rex Tillerson, and Abby Wambach were just a few of the notable people chosen to give commencement addresses that stressed integrity, truthfulness, and courage. Here are some highlights from this year's speeches.

Tim Draper is putting his celebrity to work as a venture investor. The billionaire investor, who starred in the reality TV show Startup U and tried to make Silicon Valley its own state, has raised $190 million for a seed fund.

Max Levchin’s financial technology startup Affirm Inc. has raised a $100 million in Series D, according to a person familiar with the matter.

HTC just released the HTC 10, arguably the best phone it’s ever built, but its price all but guarantees it’ll go unnoticed by the masses.

The key is to start now. Three steps you should take.

'Rahul is not in a hurry. He believes he has time on his side. He wants to fight the battle in the long term, and believes the only way to do it is to reinvent the organisation.'

Sources state that the proposal, which is likely to be voiced by President Pratibha Patil in her address to the joint Houses of Parliament on June 4 as one of the priorities of the government, is said to be the brainchild of Rahul Gandhi.

'If they get less than 150, they will be communal as far as the other parties are concerned. 150 will be a communal number and 150 and above will be a secular number!' Cho Ramaswamy on the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

'Today's national picture, where the power rests with the states and not with the Centre, is like the picture of India before the British took power in India,' says thinker Dr Ashok Mitra.

At the beginning of the year, college seniors were preparing to enter the strongest job market in decades. Now, as more than 25 million people have filed for unemployment, they face a newly competitive search. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The current national elections have set high standards in management, organization, transparency and fair selection of people's representatives. Now, the chosen representatives must understand that people have voted for governance, writes Arvind Verma.

Combining provisional voter turnout data and the perceptions of MP performance based on the Daksh-ADR survey, Srinivasan Ramani attempts to make reasonable assessments about what could be behind the high turnouts in this Lok Sabha elections.

This does not sound like a ministry that is all set to revive the ailing Indian economy in a hundred days flat, as Dr Manmohan Singh vowed, does it?

How Delhi voted in 2004

Narendra Modi of 2002 couldn't change Hindustan into Modistan; it is Hindustan which has changed Modi of 2002 into Modi of 2012, notes Sajid Bhombal.

There are 57 members with criminal background, one with even charges of rape, and 134 crorepatis (74 per cent) in the newly-elected Gujarat assembly, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-political group aiming at governmental and electoral reforms. Vicky Nanjappa reports.

The Sikkim government’s irregular allocation of hydropower projects to a New Delhi-based power producer and the eventual turn of events have cost the state more than Rs 2400 crore, according to a CAG report. Soumik Dutta reports on the details of the case and other related discrepancies that have surfaced since.

The imminent Panchayat elections in Karnataka will see 50 percent reservation for women at all tiers, but how can one ensure real authority for them? Proposed amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act may hold some answers.

India begins 2009 from a position of strength. But how it approaches security issues in the internaland external security planes will determine how it ends the year, writes Firdaus Ahmed.

The premature demise of acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, who passed away on May 30, has robbed Indian cinema of a rare combination of courage and sensitivity and perhaps, of many more masterpieces to come. Shoma A. Chatterji reminisces his works in this tribute to his genius.

The Mayawati government proposes to reduce the distance that farmers must travel to take their produce to market to an average of seven kms. This should help farming families boost their incomes, writes Devinder Sharma.

As tea estates are closing down, 70,000 plantation workers in Kerala face joblessness. M Suchitra and M P Basheer report from Peermade.

Allocations in the annual budget are the real indicators of the government's priorities. It is by studying these that we can really judge how committed the administration is to the goals proclaimed publicly. Jacob John examines Budget 2005 and finds a yawning gap between promises made and the money approved to achieve them.

The recent plummet of the Indian rupee has elicited alarmist cries from different quarters, but what does it really augur? Shankar Jaganathan provides a historical perspective on relative currency movements to help analyse its possible implications.

Expansion of social security benefits, a focus on infrastructure, easing of fiscal deficit targets and rationalisation of the tax structure - these were some of the most prominent features of Arun Jaitley's budget. A look at some of the provisions.

What could the taxes, allocations and schemes in Arun Jaitley’s budget ultimately mean for the country and its people? Shankar Jaganathan takes a bird’s eye view of the government’s most anticipated annual document for the year.

If all of India's tiger terrain was protected very well, including from cattle grazing conflicts from forest dwellers, it could potentially support 20,000 tigers, say some experts. Malini Shankar has more.

To great fanfare, the G20 announced a US $1.1 trillion global package, which will actually deliver less than half that amount in new or guaranteed resources. Meanwhile issues of fundamental economic reform were left off the agenda.

While the number of farm suicides kept increasing, the number of farmers has fallen since 2001, with countless thousands abandoning agriculture in distress, writes P Sainath.

Close to 150,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in nine years from 1997 to 2005, official data show. While farm suicides have occurred in many States, nearly two thirds of these deaths are concentrated in five States, writes P Sainath.

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have together seen 89,362 farmers' suicides between 1997 and 2005. On average, one farmer took his or her life every 53 minutes between 1997 and 2005 in just these states, writes P Sainath.

Even nations that are far below us in the Human Development Index rankings - and which have nothing like our growth numbers - have done much better than us on many counts, writes P Sainath.

Increasingly, job quotas are cited as 'discrimination' - in reverse. But the word discrimination in terms of caste means something very different that the media mostly do not, or choose not to, understand, writes P Sainath.

The broad trends of the past decade seem unshaken. Farmer suicides in the country since 1997 now total 182,936, but the real causes behind this devastation remain unaddressed, reports P Sainath.

The Bill on pension reform, which is before Parliament, takes away the obligation to pay pensions from the government and shifts the responsibility of saving for old-age to the individual. How might this affect you? And how can you make your voice heard? M R Madhavan and Ruchita Manghnani present a legislative brief.

M R Madhavan presents a brief summary of the proceedings in the national legislative bodies during the Winter 2005 session, which was conducted during Nov-Dec 2005.

By consolidating several different laws for the food sector, the proposed bill seeks to establish a single reference point for all matters relating to food safety and standards. The scientific development of the food processing industry is also sought. M R Madhavan and Kaushiki Sanyal present a legislative brief.

Through registration and certification, the draft law seeks to promote quality seeds. But it's unclear if farmers can meet the standards set for commercial seeds. Controversially, the Bill also permits inspectors to carry out search and seize operations without warrants. M R Madhavan and Kaushiki Sanyal present a legislative brief.

A draft bill in Parliament attempts to mandate the care of elderly citizens in law, and envisions the establishment of tribunals to ensure its functioning. But its definitions and methods leave many questions unanswered. Priya Narayan Parker presents a legislative brief.

Opposition to reservations for women in Parliament have centred on at least four points. Step by step Vaijayanti Gupta rebuts the arguments and re-iterates the case for reservations.

PRS Legislative Research provides a quick summary of key amendments in effect in the final version of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, that was passed by both houses of Parliament in December 2013.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament began today and will continue till August 10, 2018. It is scheduled to have 18 sittings during this period. PRS Legislative Research outlines what is in store in the upcoming session.

India currently does not count the costs of defence pensions, para military forces and the defence ministry itself as part of budgeted defence expenditure. Correcting for this and converting to purchasing power terms, we are the third largest spender on defence in the world next only to the US and China, writes Pavan Nair.

On June 29, about 50 press conferences were held across the globe to publicise the names of the 1,000 women from 153 countries jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. The Nobel Committee in Oslo had received the nominations in January 2005. Kamla Bhasin narrates the story.