-The Indian Express The report recommended specific provisions in the ministry’s version of the transgender Bill, to safeguard their rights, protect them against discrimination, and provide quotas in government colleges and jobs. The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has decided to junk the recommendations of a parliamentary committee report which was the first ever government document to recognise the rights of transgender persons to partnerships and marriage, so that they...

-Hindustan Times The design of large injections of public funds for India’s agriculture economy needs to be informed with rigorous evaluations on what is effective for higher farm productivity. A wage subsidy for farm-labour is one modification that needs an evaluation, to generate evidence to inform how the MGNREGA policy generates employment when there is need, but without stress to farm production Indian agriculture is witnessing a period of complex socio-economic distress,...

-TheWire.in While Nepal is still awaiting a way to return the banned notes, Bhutan has curbed the use of the new high-denomination notes. New Delhi: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would demonetise over 80% of its bank notes on November 8, 2016, two neighbouring nations were also taken by surprise. Nepal and Bhutan both have significant reserves and usage of Indian currency, with the latter giving it the status of...

-Newsclick.in A World Bank study ignores slumping economy and raging joblessness to praise ‘reforms’. A charming little bromance seems to be brewing between the World Bank and India’s Modi-led government. A series of reports by the World Bank has praised Modi for various kinds of “reforms”. The latest is the so called “Doing Business” report of the World Bank which lavishes praise on the Modi govt. for making it easier to do...

-The Hindu The public distribution system (PDS) and its disbursal of rations to the poor have come under the scanner in Jharkhand after three persons died recently, allegedly owing to lack of food. What happened? On September 28, Santoshi Kumari, an 11-year-old from Simdega district, died. Her mother, Koyli Devi, said the child died of hunger as the family was not getting rations under the State-run PDS for the past several months. The...