-The Hindu Bengaluru: With heightened concern over the impact of excessive use of technology — especially social media addiction — on mental health in our cities, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) is Planning to come up with an Urban Mental Health Plan. Revealing this at the 20th convocation of NIMHANS here on Saturday, institute Director B.N. Gangadhar said the current district mental health plan largely catered to issues...

-Economic and Political Weekly Biswajit Dhar (bisjit@gmail.com) teaches at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Roshan Kishore (roshan.jnu@gmail.com) is currently a data journalist with Mint. With the formation of the World Trade Organization in 1995, the United States farm subsidies had moved towards income support, reducing spending on price support measures. The explicit reason was that the WTO had held that the latter forms were more...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after taking power in the Capital a year ago pledged support for people living in unauthorised colonies and slum clusters, adopting a strong stand against demolition of such structures without proper rehabilitation. But the Arvind Kejriwal-led government has failed to turn around the fortunes of the residents of these bustling neighbourhoods, many of them with no legal electricity or water supply. Analysts say lack...

-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...

-Deccan Herald Just recall the scene in parliament when the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed in 2005. In Lok Sabha, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee put forth the motion – “Those in favour, say aye” – a unanimous chorus rose from the packed Lok Sabha. “Those against, say no,” – there was dead silence. “I think the ayes have it!” he said – and a seminal, landmark legislation became a reality. As then...