-The Economic Times What is... Inequality has re-emerged as a core concern in developing and developed countries alike, thanks to the growing gap and frustration of a section of the middle class and the rich vis-a-vis the super rich. A World Bank Policy Research Working Paper (No. 6259) by Branko Milanovic shows that the incomes of the global top 1 per cent and the emerging middle classes in developing countries rose dramatically between...

-The Times of India LONDON: India's Gangetic river dolphin and wild elephants figure in the latest 100 top mammals on the verge of extinction. The Zoological Society of London have for the first time scored the world's mammals according to how Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) they are. The list that includes the world's most extraordinary threatened species - frogs that give birth through their skin and mammals that are immune to...

-The Economic Times The huge delay in bringing the Food Security Bill to Parliament and the massive opposition to it have seen most states going ahead with key provisions of the proposed Bill, Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen tells ET. Sen has doubts whether the bill would be passed in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Edited excerpts: * Do you think Food Security Bill would be passed in the Monsoon Session? I am not...

-The Hindu Madurai: No end to doubts raised and clarifications provided with respect to the Act even after three years The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 stipulates that private schools reserve 25 per cent of seats at the entry level for children belonging to ‘disadvantaged groups' and ‘weaker sections'. The Central Act originally defined a ‘child belonging to a disadvantaged group' as one belonging to...

-The Business Standard How to fix the agricultural pricing mess The government's move to get the mandate of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) reviewed afresh by an expert panel needs to be viewed in a broader perspective - one that weighs political populism against economic logic. It has been argued that minimum support prices (MSPs) have been raised often - and supposedly partly for political reasons - during the...