-The Times of India Last month's general election brought the role of media under the spotlight. Media faced severe criticism from political parties, intellectuals and industry insiders for allegedly being partisan during elections. A large section of mainstream media has been castigated as "paid media" by social media enthusiasts. In this context, however, a great deal of work already exists in the political economy literature analyzing the real effects of having a...
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The struggle to produce the salt of life -Mina Swaminathan
-The Hindu Salt workers toil under inhuman conditions to create the ingredient that converts a tasteless lump of calories into consumable tasty food Salt has played an iconic role in our freedom struggle, symbolised by the great salt satyagraha of 1933, led by Mahatma Gandhi at Dandi. Every child in India knows about this but how many know that a similar satyagraha was led in the Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu) by...
More »Aadhaar and the rhetoric of fear -Praveen Chakravarty
-The Indian Express Five years on, we need to examine our xenophobic reactions and paranoia of the intrusive state. Five years and Rs 4,000 crore ($800mn) later, there is a pregnant pause. "Are you who you claim you are?" is a question that more than 60 crore Indian residents can now answer with integrity. Twenty-three out of the 36 states and Union territories of India can now verify the authenticity of more...
More »Government to give an additional Rs 12,000 per household for building Indira Awas Yojana house under MGNREGA -Yogima Seth Sharma
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to give Rs 12,000 per household to the poor for working on building their homes, a measure that signifies the biggest convergence of two Social Welfare schemes and could provide a boost to both rural employment and consumption at a time when the monsoon is expected to be below average. Please click here to read more. ...
More »Reinforcing the welfare agenda -Harsh Mander
-Live Mint Voters who gave the Congress its worst drubbing did not reject its welfare agenda, but its performance There are many who interpret the emphatic rejection of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the significant endorsement of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the elections of 2014 as a mandate to end the architecture of rights-based legislation for social and economic welfare constructed during the 10-year UPA regime. Commentators opposed...
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