-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-ThePrint.in Not BJP or Congress, farmers are setting their own agenda for 2019 elections. Has the farmers’ movement finally arrived at the centre stage of national politics in India? And, can 2019 be the first Lok Sabha election to be fought mainly on farmers’ issues? I asked myself these questions sitting at the stage of Kisan Mukti March at the Parliament Street last week. Tens of thousands of farmers from all over the...

-The Hindu The issue today is whether a dishonest system can be managed honestly Allegations of interference in major institutions have been the big news of late. The ongoing fracas in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has got out of hand, with the two top officials in the chain of command accusing each other of corruption. The recent pronouncements in the Supreme Court do not promise an early resolution. The fight against...

-National Herald Two years after the disastrous demonetisation, the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister—even the fawning media— no longer speak of the ‘Demonetisation Dividend’. There has been none Two years back, on November 8, at around 8.30 pm, the Prime Minister of India, with his characteristic love for drama, unleashed on the country what he had then claimed was the one silver bullet which would eliminate the triple evils of...

-Livemint.com The production of ‘mahua’ is finally entering the formal economy as new initiatives seek to upscale this indigenous drink, selling it across the country and even the globe It is a cloudy morning in Nangur village in Bastar district, Chattisgarh. It is a settlement of a little over 400 families, considered fairly large in these parts. We make a bumpy journey down a narrow, unpaved road intermittently shaded by sargi (sal)...