-The Indian Express Wilima Wadhwa, director, ASER Centre, said it is possible that the gender gap in Mathematics is reinforced by existing perceptions on mathematical ability of girls. While the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural), 2018 – or ASER – shows that the percentage of girls out of school is shrinking, it Reports a gender divide in basic Math learning levels across age categories, which steadily increases as the children...

-The Indian Express I think packaging a significant UBIS with a simultaneous increase in the taxes on the rich will help macro-economic stability, apart from assuaging the poor who will face some of the price rise in commodities or services, when subsidies are withdrawn. After my last op-ed in this paper (The safety net of the future) several readers, intrigued by the idea of a Universal Basic Income Supplement (UBIS) proposed...

-The Indian Express West Bengal has withdrawn from flagship programme PMJAY, joining 3 other states that have stayed out. What are the reasons behind the states’ reluctance; what could this mean for the programme’s future? New Delhi: On Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her state is withdrawing from Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). Delhi, Telangana and Odisha have stayed out of the programme, while Reports...

-News18.com Acclaimed journalist and Founder-Editor of the People’s Archive of Rural India, P Sainath attributes the existential crisis confronting India’s agrarian society to macro-economic policies set in motion 25 years ago. Talking to Anuradha SenGupta, Sainath makes a case for state intervention in agriculture and says the Modi government, with its shifting positions and policies like demonetisation has only aggravated the assault on agrarian livelihoods. Dismissing the buzz about imminent new initiatives...

  In its 2014 election manifesto, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), among other things, promised to "take steps to enhance the profitability in agriculture, by ensuring a minimum of 50% profits over the cost of production". In his 2018-19 Union budget speech too, the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley informed the Parliament that the 2014 election manifesto of the BJP had stated that the farmers should get at least 1.5 times the...