-The Hindu The top 1% of earners captured less than 21% of total income in the late 1930s, before dropping to 6% in the early 1980s and rising to 22% today, says renowned economist Lucas Chancel According to a research paper by renowned economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel, income inequality in India is at its highest level since 1922, the year the Income Tax Act was passed. In December, they will...

-The Hindu ‘TK Kathir’ is cultivated in accordance with organic farming methods in Ernakulam village KOCHI: A local brand of organic rice named after a farmer’s grandfather and promoted by a political leader. But there is more to ‘TK Kathir’ than just that. Grown by T.D. Robert, a relatively newly converted paddy farmer of Kanjoor village, the brand was much sought after at the recently concluded organic Onam Mela organised by the Jaiva...

-The Hindu The very foundation of Aadhaar must be reconsidered in the light of the PRIvacy judgment Predictably enough, the recent Supreme Court order affirming that PRIvacy is a fundamental right sent Aadhaar’s public-relations machine into damage control mode. After denying the right to PRIvacy for years, the government promptly changed gear and welcomed the judgment. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), suddenly asserted, “The Aadhaar...

-The Hindu Governments must be judged on the quality and extent of the public health care they provide The deaths of more than 70 children in one hospital in Gorakhpur and 49 in Farrukhabad, both in Uttar Pradesh recently, reflect the appalling state of public health in India. However, it needs to be remembered that India’s public health care sector has been ailing for decades. According to the latest Global Burden of...

-Livemint.com A 2014 NSSO report shows that the majority of Indians prefer to consult PRIvate practitioners rather than public hospitals and those who do visit public hospitals often do so out of compulsion First it was Gorakhpur. Now it is Farrukhabad. The death toll in Uttar Pradesh’s government hospitals—from what appear to be preventable causes—has been mounting over the past month. Similar incidents have been reported from other states, pointing to the...