-Economic and Political Weekly A categorical distinction is facing rough weather--that between urban and rural. If we take just agriculture, there is so much of the outside world that comes in not just as external markets but as external inputs. Further, many of our villages barely qualify as rural if we were to take occupation alone. So the earlier line that separated the farmer from the worker in towns is slowly...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Terms like inclusive growth and roof-for-all may have gained political currency in the recent years, but trends show how public sector banks and Housing Finance Corporation (HFC) are reluctant to provide housing loans to the poor and lower middle class. The data that was presented before MPs at the consultative committee of urban development and housing alleviation on Wednesday highlighted how the outstanding housing loans up...

-Hindustan Times Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to use his photograph in newspaper advertisements is tantamount to “an open contempt” of the Supreme Court’s ban on using pictures of CMs in government publicity, legal experts say. Yadav’s photograph appeared recently in full-page newspaper advertisements highlighting an agreement to construct an international cricket stadium in Lucknow. A Uttar Pradesh government ad with Akhilesh Yadav that appeared in a newspaper on Friday. On May...

-The Times of India LONDON: The world is getting younger but the world's parliamentarians, elected to govern are getting older. The median age of the global population is around 26.4 years and among the voting age population worldwide, 49% are between the ages of 20 and 39, But the average age of those sitting in the world's parliaments is now between 51-60 years. A 20-year-old Scottish student made history in May 7 general elections...

-The Hindu The Modi government is determined to dismantle the two-pronged welfare paradigm. It is now an established fact that one area where the Narendra Modi administration has acted with a sense of purpose, urgency and resolve is in slashing social expenditure. Be it education, health, agriculture, livelihood security, food security, panchayati raj institutions, drinking water or the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes sub-plan, central government funds earmarked for social protection have been cut. The...