-Livemint.com India’s manufacturing sector is moving out of costly and congested cities to rural areas in order to stay competitive. But poor infrastructure is hampering its growth The global economic downturn has raised concerns about the effectiveness of conventional economic policies, which were designed for stabilization, and not for reviving growth in developing countries. Rural distress, spatial disparities, the gender divide and climate change, all combined with the threat of low and...

-The Hindu In the absence of scientific planning and implementation, measures like Jal Shakti Abhiyan may not be successful Following the massive water crisis across India in the summer of 2019, the Central government hurriedly launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), a time-bound, mission-mode water conservation campaign to be carried out in two phases, across the 255 districts having critical and over-exploited groundwater levels. This campaign, however, was not intended to be...

-The Telegraph ‘We don't want young people of India to be distracted from the work of nation building’ London: Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Laureate and president of the Royal Society, the prestigious body whose members include the world’s top scientists, has given an exclusive interview to The Telegraph strongly condemning the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill that makes religion a factor in citizenship. He said he would not personally sign the petition organised by “a...

-The Hindu A large share of disabled persons not only lose their jobs but have to spend more towards their livelihood A large number of disabled Indians are not literate and also not a part of the labour force. A high proportion of them lost their jobs after the onset of disability, even as their expenses increased. The conclusions are based on the 76th National Sample Survey 2018. Low literacy levels An overwhelming share...

-The Indian Express The CAB-NRC poses the gravest threat to India’s secular democratic constitution since India became a republic, and must be fought with a nation-wide civil disobedience movement. The contours of this struggle need to be worked out by We the People. Despite being under constant siege, the edifice of India’s Constitution has endured so far. The onslaught has intensified since the expanded mandate to the Narendra Modi government in May. However,...