-The Indian Express "I assure all the people, specially from the minorities, that NPR is not going to be used for NRC. It’s a rumour,” Amit Shah said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday drew a distinction between the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) saying both were governed by different laws and NPR data would never be used for the NRC exercise. In an interview to...

-The Hindu Uneven inflation and sluggish growth present serious dilemmas for policymakers Policymakers face a tricky dilemma as prices in the economy continue to rise even as economic growth has plummeted to well under 5%. Food inflation, now in double-digits, has caused significant pain. The International Monetary Fund on December 23 called for “urgent” policy measures to reverse the current slowdown that has weighed down global economic growth. The warning is timely...

-The Hindu Delays in local body polls can be avoided with sterner fixing of accountability It’s been more than two decades since the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments were passed by Parliament, which accorded constitutional status to local administration bodies across India. Yet, the Tamil Nadu government delayed holding rural local body elections, due in 2016, by three years. This unconstitutional delay started when the Madras High Court cancelled the notification put...

-The Hindu Report finds one in seven Indians suffered from mental health issues in 2017. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh account for a higher prevalence of mental disorders that manifest primarily during adulthood in depression and anxiety, according to the first comprehensive estimates of disease burden attributable to mental health from 1990 prepared by the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative and published in the Lancet Psychiatry. The study finds that...

-Moneycontrol.com With priorities of the government changing, the agriculture sector is unlikely to see any major initiatives and reforms Inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November is further proof that agriculture produces only marginal surpluses. Only last year, observers were worried that the planners were not engaged enough to see that India is now surplus with most agricultural commodities. Please click here to read more. ...