-TheWire.in Millions have been displaced, while a loss of crop and reduced yield are expected across the state. For the past few months, Bihar has been making headlines for many reasons. Disease outbreak, mob lynching or the state’s political affairs have seen it receive plenty of Media coverage. But the state is now in the news for concurrently facing two natural disasters: drought and flood. This is not the first time that Bihar...

In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...

-Hindustan Times Unfortunately, there is no high frequency income or consumption data for the Indian economy. What we do have is monthly data for rural wages, which is available until June 2019. On Wednesday, Media reports said that India’s leading biscuit-maker Parle Products Private Limited could cut up to 10,000 jobs as “slowing economic growth and falling demand in the rural heartland could cause production cuts”. The company’s flagship brand Parle-G...

-The Indian Express Elections are short term contests, but the political project of democracy is a long game. Democracy is not just a set of institutions but also a set of values. The institutions are, minimally speaking, free and fair elections, an elected Parliament containing an executive and an Opposition to hold it accountable, an independent judiciary, a nonpartisan bureaucracy, a free Media, and security of existence for all citizens. Democratic values...

-The Indian Express The government will take a call on the process to retrieve the money from the ineligible beneficiaries after August 31, when the scrutiny is complete. Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has found that 2.66 lakh recipients of assistance under its Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme are not eligible for the benefit, Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo said on Thursday. The government will take a call on the...