-The Times of India blog The prime minister expressed concern about ‘population explosion’ in his Independence Day speech, and referred to those with small families as patriotic, ‘responsible citizens’. Last month, BJP MP Rakesh Sinha introduced the Population Regulation Bill, 2019, in the Rajya Sabha. He later claimed that his Bill was not aimed at any religion, caste or community. Regardless, the Shiv Sena targeted a section of the Muslims for...

-PTI India will restore 50 lakh hectare of its degraded land by 2030, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday. Speaking ahead of the upcoming global conference on land desertification, the minister said 29 per cent land of India’s total geographical area is degraded which has to be restored and will be the agenda of the the summit. India is hosting the Conference of Parties (COP) 14 of the United...

-Scroll.in Democracy requires a national character that isn’t grounded in ignorance and government policy that is not a sophisticated version of Whatsapp. It is now clear – 1,020 days after prime minister Narendra Modi told India he was wiping out 85% of its currency, by value – that demonetisation was not just a failure but a spectacularly misconceived move. That its destructive effects took at least 100 lives in its immediate aftermath,...

-Newsclick.in Measures announced by the finance minister are mere concessions to industry lobbies and stock market, and don’t address lack of demand. The raft of measures announced by India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for supposedly boosting a sinking economy are unlikely to rescue flagging economic growth and don’t even address the key problems of lack of purchasing power with the people and raging unemployment. It’s rearranging the furniture when the house is...

-The Hindu In his Independence Day speech, prime minister Narendra Modi touched upon the need to control 'population explosion' in India. However, the growth rate of the country's population has been falling since 1971. The Total Fertility Rate (the average number of children borne by a woman in her lifetime) has also been falling across most States. India's population growth rate peaked between 1961 and 1971 and has been falling since. The...