Several high-profile sexual assault cases in India have sparked a national debate over women's rights and the need for social reform in a rapidly modernizing country, explains this Backgrounder.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uses Sheryl Sandberg's new book to show how influential news outlets generally ignore the needs of struggling families.

"Flows of migrants and refugees influence and change the social, economic and political dynamics of their destinations -- and the places they have left behind," writes the Inter Press Service on human migration. In the United States, politicians are saying they are committed to reform of the U.S. immigration system. Immigration Research Links provides resources for news, legislation, statistics, organizations, and reports on immigration.

Terra Lawson-Remer examine the impact of collective fisheries ownership on household income and food consumption in Fiji

UN General Assembly Resolution 56/183 in December 2001 endorsed the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which encourages global discussions on how to benefit from the digital revolution while addressing the digital divide. The International Telecommunication Union hosted two phases in Geneva from December 10 to 12, 2003, and in Tunis from November 16 to 18, 2005. From February 25 to 27, 2013, WSIS participants met in Paris to evaluate progress and goals.

Peter Orszag argues that reforming medical malpractice law to include "safe harbors" that protect doctors who follow evidence-based medical guidelines could bring down health-care costs without reducing the quality of care.

Pope Benedict XVI's gave these remarks at his final General Audience on February 27, 2013, at St. Peter's Square.

Inequality is rising across the post-industrial capitalist world. The problem is not caused by politics and politics will never be able to eliminate it. But simply ignoring it could generate a populist backlash. Governments must accept that today as ever, inequality and insecurity are the inevitable results of market operations. Their challenge is to find ways of shielding citizens from capitalism's adverse consequences -- even as they preserve the dynamism that produces capitalism's vast economic and cultural benefits in the first place.

Since their inception in 2000, The Millennium Development Goals have revolutionized the global aid business, using specific targets to help mobilize and guide development efforts. They have encouraged world leaders to tackle multiple dimensions of poverty simultaneously and provided a standard for judging performance. As their 2015 expiration looms, the time has come to bank those successes and focus on what comes next.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says the Facebook COO's new book Lean In encourages mothers with careers to opt out of the parent-or-careerwoman binary and firmly choose both.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that with the help of the private and public sector, women entrepreneurs are helping to combat global poverty, but more work is needed to overcome the challenges of access to finance, access to markets, and access to skills-building and networks.

Two experts provide an unprecedented and fascinating look at what may happen in the future of business, citizenship, politics, privacy, terrorism, and diplomacy.

As the 113th U.S. Congress considers an overhaul of the country's immigration system, Task Force members Richard Land, Eliseo Medina, and project director Edward Alden discuss U.S. policy options and political prospects for comprehensive change.

Eboo Patel leads a conversation on his new book Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America, and his work as a Muslim interfaith adviser to the Obama administration.

Peter Orszag argues that simplifying access to financial aid can help more Americans earn college degrees, reduce inequality, and boost economic growth.

Julia E. Sweig addresses the transition of Catholic demographics and the cultural power of the papacy.

Edward Alden discusses the struggle to overcome the legacy of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act and argues that increases in border enforcement over the past thirty years may be the strongest argument for why immigration reform in 2013 would not be a repeat of 1986.

The surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has given rise to speculations that the next pontiff to lead the Catholic Church will hail from the developing world, says expert James P. McCartin.

France says it will withdraw from Mali once an African peacekeeping force is in place. To keep Islamists at bay, the United States is considering increasing its military presence in the region. A better approach is to focus on fixing the governance issues that fuel radicalism to begin with, says John Campbell.

Shannon K. O'Neil says after Republicans' election-year drubbing, the United States has an historic opportunity to fix its broken immigration system. And the arguments against reform simply don't hold up anymore.