Anna Hazare begins "fast-unto-death" hunger strike to end corruption

Social activist and reformer Anna Hazare, 72, joined a nationwide protest campaign against an anti-corruption bill on Tuesday by beginning a "fast-unto-death" hunger strike at Jantar Mantar observatory in Delhi. He and 100 of his supporters began fasting to protest the bill, known as the Ombudsman bill, when the government did not accept their demand that the opinions of citizens be considered in the formation of the bill.

Participants in the nationwide campaign called "India Against Corruption" claim the proposed anti-corruption bill is too weak because the ombudsman is given no enforcement mechanisms and lacks wide investigative powers. Their goal is to strengthen the bill and give it teeth. They seek to create a citizen ombudsman free from political influence, that would accept citizen input, and could investigate charges against public officials including the prime minister’s office.

"I have written so many letters to the prime minister asking for time to meet and discuss. No reply," said Hazare. "Everybody is drowned in corruption. I will fast until I die for the cause of cleaning up the system."

Corruption is an entrenched feature of life in India, from minor fees paid to avoid trumped up charges to massive fraudulent scams by government officials. A recent string of high-profile allegations of corruption have shaken financial confidence in India's economy, the third largest in Asia.

Although hunger strikes are a common political tactic in India, millions of Indians have joined the recent anti-corruption campaign. Supporters of Hazare have crowed Jantar Mantar observatory where Hazare has completed his third day of fasting. More than 80,000 friends have joined his Facebook page.The series of costly corruption scandals in the pass six months have resulted in enormous public outrage that has embarrassed the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, including problems in funding the 2010 Commonwealth Games, a multi-billion telecom licensing scam involving a cabinet minister, and a land fraud scheme in which bureaucrats appropriated apartments intended for war widows in Mumbai.

The Ombudsman bill was first drafted 42 years ago, but has never been passed by parliament in the 10 times it has been proposed

India's population increases by 181 million in ten years

India's 2011 census reports that its population has increased by 181 million in the space of one decade, a figure 17.6 percent greater than 2001. The census results, publicised today, show the population of India now stands at 1.21 billion. C. Chandramauli, the commissioner of the census, said India's population represents "over 17 percent of the world population, [while] India is 2.4 percent of the world’s surface area."

According to BBC News Online, the current population of the country is in excess of the populations of Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Brazil and the United States put together. While India's population has increased by more than 17 percent since the 2001 census, this growth rate is the lowest since India achieved independence in 1947. Between 1991 and 2011, the population growth rate has steadily decreased. Approximately 25 percent of Indians over the age of seven were found to be illiterate in the 2011 census, a decrease of 10 percent from the census held ten years ago. The increase in literate females is greater than that of males, the new census reports.

The findings have suggest a preference of male over female children. For every one thousand boys below the age of seven, there were 914 girls, a decrease from the 2001 census, which reported 927 female for every one thousand male children. Chandramauli called this discovery "a matter of grave concern. This is the lowest ever in the demographic history of the country," he said, and noted "[t]he last census in 2001 had warned us about this, the tendency has worsened." This pattern continues although the Indian government has prohibited hospitals from disclosing the gender of an unborn child.

According to The Washington Post, parents in much of India abort female fetuses and murder young female children for financial reasons. Incidents like this occur more frequently in the better educated and the richer Indian states, including Punjab and Gujarat. G.K. Pillai, the home secretary, has claimed that "whatever policy measures we have been following in the last 40 years will need a complete review now. They have not been effective".

There are now 940 female adults for every one thousand men, in contrast to 2001, when there were 933 women per thousand males. However, in the capital, Delhi, only 866 females were counted for every one thousand males.

Throughout the states of India, the population growth rate varies significantly. This results in an inequality in the allocation of funds and is a problem, experts say. According to Management Institute of Population and Development consultant Devendra Kothari: "Our federal government sends funds to the states according to their population. This means that the states that have worked harder to reduce their population growth get less money from New Delhi". Kothari continued: "The states with lesser population send fewer members to the Indian parliament. Their financial and political clout will go down."

Over the course of the approaching year, concluding census figures will be publicised, according to officials.

Tamil Nadu Elections: DMK, AIADMK promise freebies

Both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) parties have announce "freebies" as part of their election manifestos in the lead-up to the vote in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Freebies have been a success from the 2006 Tamil Nadu elections when DMK lured voters by announcing free colour televisions to households. That triumph led the major opposition AIADMK to announce similar freebies in their manifesto published Thursday.

DMK has announced free laptops to college students, kitchen appliances and modern networks to rural regions. The AIADMK, publishing their manifesto later, expanded on each of the promises of the DMK, plus offering 4g gold mangalsutra for the poor, monetary help for rural households and fishermen, free rice, and more.

AIADMK manifesto addresses larger issues, such as taking on the near-monopoly of the cable industry television industry, starting new Power generation plants to address power shortages in recent years