-The Hindu The manner in which crucial laws are being amended will end up eroding rights that have deep consequences on the lives of our children and us as citizens of a thriving democracy. All because the state hasn’t been able to deliver what it was mandated to do. The last few months have seen an alarming trend of crucial laws being amended, or sought to be amended, in a manner that...

-The Indian Express The recently-released India Rural Development Report, which is endorsed by the government, says 7% of the rural population is ‘very poor’; villages in eastern Indian states are the worst affected. A World Bank report released this week has proposed a new way to measure poverty, which suggests that India may have been overestimating the number of its poor. According to a separate set of figures and analysis endorsed by...

-PTI Bhubaneswar: Rejecting the Centre's decision of providing "allowance" to school children for mid-day meal (MDM), Odisha government today asked opposition BJP not to politicise the National Food Security Act to be implemented in the state from November 1. "Allowance to school children instead of MDM is not at all acceptable to the state. This will defeat the very purpose of the MDM for reduction of drop out rates. The Centre on...

-The Indian Express Delhi lost the window of opportunity to avoid an outbreak because of a governance deficit; first because the state was in election mode and then because of the AAP’s internal squabbles. The past few weeks have witnessed substantial media coverage on the dengue outbreak in Delhi. Heartrending stories of clearly avoidable deaths gave the crisis a human face. Focusing on Delhi, most sought to expose the lack of...

-The Hindu Business Line Recently, the Telangana Agricultural Advisory Forum, consisting of a few university professors and scientists, deliberated on the causes and consequences of the drought and farmer ‘suicides’ in the State. The unofficial number of suicides attributed to farm families is 1,152. An inquiry into some of the recent suicides reveals an interesting picture. The farmers were not indebted to cooperative credit societies or commercial banks. The case of a...