-The Telegraph The Left in Bengal had often criticised him whenever he red-flagged excessive local tyranny, and spoke about the industrial decline in Bengal. The incumbent ruling party may make tall claims about changes in Bengal since the Trinamul government came to power but he has been candid enough to suggest that he hasn't seen much change either in industrial expansion or in investment in infrastructure. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has...

-The Hindu India does not create 55 lakh new jobs every year, as claimed by a new report A recent research report titled “Towards a Payroll Reporting in India” authored by the Group Chief Economic Adviser of the State Bank of India and a professor from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore has caught the media’s and the Prime Minister’s fancy. Ostensibly, the main objective of the report was to make a...

-The Hindu Hundreds of government schools, especially in tribal-dominated districts, have been shut down over the past year. Elizabeth Kuruvilla reports on the closures, the mushrooming of private schools, and the battles waged by tribal villages to keep state-funded local schools open It’s a little past four in the afternoon, the time when schools ring their closing bells in the Hatsesikhal cluster of Odisha’s tribal-dominated Rayagada district. Just before Sekhal Primary School...

-The Indian Express The MP government’s scheme paying farmers the difference between MSP and marketing prices has had a mixed impact on the ground. Dewas (Madhya Pradesh): “Baniya deta mandi mein, jo bachta hai woh sarkar deti hai” (what the trader gives in the market, the government gives the balance). That’s Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY) for Arjun Singh Sendhav. The 29-year-old five-bigha (2.9 acres) farmer from Chaubara Jagir village is a beneficiary of...

-The Indian Express It finds that while the youth are high on aspiration (about 60% wanted to study beyond Class 12), they are short on vital, everyday skills that are needed to help them get to where they aspire. New Delhi: Boys and girls in rural India between 14 and 18 years of age are most likely to be in school or even college with access to a mobile phone, they may...