-The Indian Express At the root of the insecurities of Marathas, Jats and Patels lies lack of education and employability The recent clash in Pune district between the Mahars and Marathas reflects the anti-Dalit prejudice of the latter, but it needs to be analysed in the context of the changing status of dominant castes, not only in Maharashtra but across India. The claims of Patels, Jats and Marathas to be considered as...

-Livemint.com Distress in rural economy is not limited only to the agrarian sector but has also spilled over to the larger economy with unemployment becoming a major challenge 2017 has been a bad year for the economy. The fact that the economy is in crisis, particularly the rural economy, is no longer a matter of statistics. The recent elections in Gujarat have laid bare the fissures in the rural economy that have...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India's organised sector created a little over 1,100 jobs a day in 2016-17 which totalled up to 4.16 lakh new jobs for the entire year. The rate of job creation was 2% higher than 2015-16. Last quarter of 2016-17, the hardest hit by the demonetisation, saw much higher job creation than the previous three quarters of the year, claims the quarterly report on employment scenario,...

-The Hindu * What’s the problem? The year 2017 was marked by several farmers’ protests nationwide, with a few turning violent. Last month, in New Delhi, 184 farmer groups came together from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana to take part in a ‘protest walk.’ The protest once again highlighted the plight of farmers and the extent of agrarian distress. The agriculture sector is characterised by instability in incomes...

-Livemint.com GST rate cut and lenient implementation of the tax reform has caused GST collection in December to slip to Rs80,808 crore, down 14% from August and 3% from November New Delhi: Things don’t augur well for the exchequer, with recent GST rate cuts and a lenient implementation of the goods and services tax causing collections to slide further in December, posing a challenge to the government. Total GST collection of the central...