-ABPLive.in New Delhi: A host of activists and academics have appealed to Narendra Modi to nip any move to dilute the 100-day village job scheme after rural development minister Nitin Gadkari brushed aside objections from within his own ministry. In a letter signed by over a hundred citizens, the signatories that included Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Jean Dreze, Harsh Mander, Prabhat Patnaik and Abhijit Sen sought the Prime Minister's "immediate assurance" that...

-Tehelka Despite the serious toll it takes on women's health, female sterilisation remains the most prevalent form of contraception in India. While memories of the 21 months of Emergency in 1975-77, imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, survives even today in the minds of Indian men as the fear of forced sterilisation, the country's population control policies have shifted over the years since then to target the politically less...

-The Indian Express The MGNREGS stands out as one of the Indian government's most ambitious social schemes, with far-reaching consequences throughout the economy. The only known recipe for poverty eradication is a combination of high growth and high development spending. Neither is sufficient. A recent study (Kapoor and Ahluwalia, 2012) has shown that post-liberalisation, one champion of poverty reduction in India is Andhra Pradesh. This reduction in poverty is widespread, as...

-Deccan Chronicle On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, a financial inclusion scheme that will ensure that at least one member of each and every family in India not only has a bank account with a debit card, but is also provided an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000, a life insurance policy of Rs 30,000 and accident insurance cover of Rs 1,00,000. On August...

-Live Mint The world's largest social security net deserves better, especially given its potential to contribute to strengthening the foundations of an inclusive, green economy Nitin Gadkari is a man in a hurry to dismantle the edifice of rights-based legislation enacted by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He has already set in motion steps to emasculate the historic land acquisition law passed by Parliament enthusiastically in September 2013. He has set...