-The Indian Express In his second term, Prime Minister Modi can ensure better urbanisation through greater devolution of power, and finances, to urban local bodies. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins his second term with an even larger political mandate, it is time to reflect on what should be the priorities in fixing our cities. The scale of the challenge is massive whether we look at the availability of clean drinking...

-TheWire.in With one of the highest undernutrition rates of children in urban areas, Delhi needs to tackle the issue of severely stunted children in the city who don't have access to proper infrastructure and facilities at local anganwadi centres. New Delhi: It is an early summer morning in North Delhi’s Kabir Basti. A dingy and crowded lane of the settlement, with puddles from water leakages in broken pipes, opens up to a...

-The Indian Express Interestingly, researchers observed that as much as 5 million people left the workforce between 2016 and 2018. "The beginning of the decline in jobs coincided with demonetisation in November 2016, although no direct causal relationship can be established based only on these trends," The State of Working India (SWI) 2019 report released by Azim Premji University says. Bengaluru: Researchers and economists of Azim Premji University, based in Bangalore,...

-Livemint.com National Democratic Alliance has revamped the long-running Indira Awaas Yojana housing scheme but India remains a long way from Housing for All The quality of housing is the most visible aspect of poverty. In India’s cities and villages, the poorest almost always live in makeshift or dilapidated homes, which can be bad for their health and hurt their productivity. Governments have long tried to address this through different housing policies, the...

-The Hindu The top-down, rushed approach of the government in reaching out to farmers is likely to end in failure This year’s Interim Budget is being regarded as a big spread for farmers. The government announced its decision to transfer Rs.6,000 every year directly to 12 crore farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. While this is a progressive step, is it...