-Quartz India On Dec. 30, 2016, Indian PRIme minister Narendra Modi cajoled president Pranab Mukherjee into promulgating the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Ordinance, 2016. Two days later, on Jan. 02, 2017, the supreme court, in a separate matter, delivered a verdict that changed the law of ordinances in powerful ways. It scrubbed out old meanings, unearthed new ones, and further garrisoned judges’ hold on the constitution. A prohibitive change...

-The Indian Express Studying micro economies such as Bastar gives us the tools to highlight the rising inequality between the bourgeoise and proletariat. New Delhi: In Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar’s meticulously researched book, The Burning Forest: India’s War in Bastar, the plight of the adivasis struggling to make ends meet paints a striking picture of the growing wage disparity in the “Maoist state”. Wages paid to the adivasis are strictly controlled...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Just before the release of the popular Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a government teacher in the state has raised concerns over the methodology employed in its preparation. ASER is a popular report on the learning levels of children across states. The report is to be revealed in New Delhi on Wednesday. Ranjitsinh Disale, a ZP school teacher from Solapur, wrote to Pratham, the NGO which...

-The Hindu The truth may ultimately prevail about demonetisation, but the government might be able to maintain the loyalty of a large part of the public for a long time, says Amartya Sen More than two months after the demonetisation, Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen says that any proper “economic reasoning could not have sensibly led to such a ham-handed policy.” He predicts that the demonetisation will hit the economy quite...

-Hindustan Times Hamirgarh/ Dhanaula/ Chandigarh: Gurpreet Singh and Sandeep Duggal have more than 350 friends on Facebook. At 19, Gurpreet’s profile clearly gravitates to pictures of youth – astride an Enfield motorcycle, one with a friend in the corridors of a college, and the quintessential selfie with sunglasses. Duggal’s is more subdued. In a black-and-white profile photograph, he smiles with arms folded, exuding the confidence of a young man who identifies himself...