-The Hindu “Commodities that are primarily consumed by the rich have a low tax rate” India’s rich feed off subsidies worth over Rs. 1 lakh crore a year that are meant for the poor, according to the Economic Survey. And this figure only considers the subsidies on six commodities, two public utilities — the Railways and electricity — and one small savings scheme, the Public Provident Fund. “There are a fair amount of...

-The Hindu Economic agency is one of the most enabling elements to release women from oppression, violence and powerlessness. A Supreme Court Bench has once again proved that our judiciary can be the torchbearer of progressive attitudes towards women. In 2013, the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, while responding to the horrific December 16, 2012 gang rape in Delhi, prepared a report that drew from the observations of members of the women’s movement among...

-Frontline.in An initiative focussed on Kerala’s development experience exposes a worrying trend of rising inequality and proposes a strategy for sustainable and equitable growth. THE fourth international Congress on Kerala Studies, organised by the A.K.G. Centre for Study and Research in Thiruvananthapuram on January 9-10, has generated much interest for its focus on a worrying new trend in Kerala’s development experience: rising inequality and marginalisation of large sections of people despite...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Constitutional right to gender equality still remains a dream and women continue to face various kinds of discrimination which can be removed only with economic empowerment, the Supreme Court has said while batting for government policy to give preferential treatment to women in public services. "Women, particularly in India, face various kinds of gender discrimination. It is notwithstanding the fact that under the Constitution, women...

-The Hindu The WTO Nairobi meet — which was expected to produce by noon local time (2.30 PM IST) on Friday a Ministerial Declaration to liberalise global trade — stretched into overtime with the developing and the developed world failing to bridge their differences over farm issues as well as on whether to continue with the ongoing 14-year-old Doha Round talks. Hectic parleys were on between member countries, during the last day...