India has achieved close to universal enrolment. The small proportion of children who are still out of school, the hardest to reach, will be pulled in by the efforts emanating from the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Now we must focus on the next challenge, a massive and less visible one, that of ensuring that every child gets an effective education of good quality. Schools must give children a real...
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The risks arising from Asia's water stress by Brahma Chellaney
Water, the most vital of all resources, has emerged as a key issue that would determine if Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. After all, the driest continent in the world is not Africa but Asia, where availability of freshwater is not even half the global annual average of 6,380 cubic metres per inhabitant. When the estimated reserves of rivers, lakes, and aquifers are added up, Asia has less than...
More »Seasonal variations in food prices dropped: RBI study
-The Economic Times If food inflation seems to be pinching more, it is because vegetable prices barely decline in winters, milk rises through the year and egg prices remain high in summers - all because of rising demand. Over the years, the seasonal variation in prices has dropped and consumers do not have the option of shifting to cheaper produce to keep daily costs down, says a recent Reserve Bank of India...
More »How little can a person live on? by Utsa Patnaik
The Planning Commission's laughable estimates of the ‘poverty line' follow from a mistake in method that it made 30 years ago and has clung to ever since. The affidavit that the Planning Commission recently submitted before the Supreme Court stating that a person is to be considered ‘poor' only if his or her monthly spending is below Rs.781 (Rs.26 a day) in the rural areas and Rs.965 (Rs.32 a day) in...
More »Reasons for inflation known, but no light at the end of tunnel by Ashok Dasgupta
Planning Commission, RBI officials hold brainstorming deliberations with experts With the persistent near double-digit headline inflation, despite sustained increases in key policy rates by the Reserve Bank of India, turning out to be “a frustrating experience for Policymakers,” senior officials from the Planning Commission, the Finance Ministry and the RBI met with a group of academic economic experts and representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the...
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