-The Hindu   Karnataka secures third position while Gujarat stands fifth, according to survey   Poll-bound States Kerala and Tamil Nadu secured first and second ranking in public affairs index (PAI) in governance in States, while Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha are lagging on this front, a latest survey of think-tank Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bengaluru, has revealed. Karnataka secured third position while Gujarat stood fifth. Karnataka secured top position among all States in the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Modi government tries hard to signal a makeover but beyond the symbolic it does not change much. Budget 2016 is not important for the proposals that it has made but for what it tries to signal about the proposed makeover, in a limited way, of the Narendra Modi government. The budget does try hard to claim that the Modi government is not a “suit-boot” administration, an image...

-CaravanMagazine.in Political realities blunt Narendra Modi’s attack on the NREGA At the end of December 2015, the central rural development ministry was in a state of panic. Nine of India’s largest states had declared drought in several districts. The scant kharif harvest meant many farm labourers, who might have been employed on fields, went without work. Water was so scarce that many farms weren’t sowing a winter crop, further diminishing employment...

-AP/Bloomberg Whether Modi can raise farmer incomes without stoking inflation may determine if his economic vision is any different from the previous Congress-led govt New Delhi: Shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in 2014, his first economic plan promised modern cities, manufacturing corridors and bullet trains to aspirational Indians yearning to join a ‘neo middle class.’ This week his latest budget struck a much different tone, listing a slew...

-Livemint.com A growth-first approach may work in the short-term, but India needs to prioritize sustainability simultaneously The Union Budget 2016-17, seeking to “transform India”, has been hailed for its emphasis on agricultural growth and sustainability. Symbolically, the finance minister put “agriculture and farmers’ welfare” first in his nine-point agenda. The words “agriculture” and “farmer” found 20 and 32 mentions, respectively, in the budget speech, the highest in the last decade. On the...