-The Telegraph New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi now plans to reach out to day labourers and tribals like he did with farmers and Dalits last year, raising alleged dilution of the legal framework the UPA government had built for them. The Congress has drawn up a nationwide campaign against alleged dilution of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which covers the lowest rungs of job seekers. It also plans to forcefully...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Out of 34 financial advisers representing different ministries and departments who held budget discussions, 50% were women, sources said. Seventeen women officials held discussions with finance secretary RP Watal along with other senior members in his team, according to sources. In 2012-13, there were just eight women financial advisers, and in 2014-15 there were 11. Financial advisers, who typically operate as chief finance officers of their ministries, are responsible for...

-CaravanMagazine.in Thomas Piketty's comments on inequality allude to the same structures that surround Rohith Vemula's tragic death. On 21 January 2016, addressing a packed hall of students and scholars at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, the French economist Thomas Piketty gave a talk in which he discussed the history of taxation, inequality and capital in the twenty-first century. Superficially, Piketty’s discourse appears to be entirely distinct from another recent discourse on inequality—that...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has alerted the government about importers of pulses resorting to cartels to make a killing this year on red lentils (masoor). The report has named companies that are buying masoor in large quantities and cornering stocks in Canada, which is the largest exporter of red lentils to India. According to rough estimates, last year Dal importers had reportedly made around Rs 3,500...

-The Hindu Even as the student population has become increasingly diverse, the high incidence of suicide among Dalit students points to continuing discrimination, exclusion and humiliation. There is a need to apply our minds in a calm manner to address the problems that Dalit students face in institutions of higher education and find a more durable solution, now that the University of Hyderabad has revoked the suspension of students in the context...