-Live Mint   A key reason for the surge in anti-incumbency faced by UPA has been its failure to curb inflationary pressures New Delhi: A key reason for the surge in anti-incumbency faced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has been its failure to curb inflationary pressures for most of the regime's second tenure. While inflation based on wholesale prices averaged 6.1% during UPA-1 (2004-2009), it was a percentage point higher at 7.1%...

-Frontline   A study on untouchability practices in 1,589 villages in Gujarat provides critical Data for the Dalit movement to shape its interventions at the national and international levels. DESPITE laws making it punishable, untouchability continues to exist in the country in a vicious manner. A study titled "Understanding Untouchability: A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1,589 villages", conducted in Gujarat by the Navsarjan Trust, an organisation that promotes the...

-Down to Earth   Britain's weather department has issued a heat wave warning and the US is presently basking in a summer with temperatures higher than normal Freak rains, hailstorms and now an early heat wave, it is all happening here in India. While Odisha and Kolkata were in the grip of heat wave in late April, which claimed 33 lives (30 in Odisha and three in Kolkata), intense heat wave conditions have...

-The Hindu Business Line Given the analytical output, it will become easier for governments to take decisions Global country risks, weather uncertainty, crop failure, lack of hedging instruments, increased capital costs, lack of insurance mechanisms and logistical bottlenecks are just a few of the issues that lead to volatility in prices of agricultural commodities. This volatility, combined with a steady increase in demand for food around the world, has forced us to accept...

-The Indian Express How Punjab is making the best use of the flawed public distribution system. Inclusive economic growth is a political, economic and social necessity. The question is: what is the right strategy to ensure this? Most of our programmes to help the underprivileged have suffered from leakages and inefficiencies, so that the benefits have not accrued to the targeted groups but the strain on our fiscal deficit remains. Subsidies are...