-TheWire.in Most of the ‘reforms’ that are being introduced to address poor delivery of social services are silent on the issue of inadequate human resources, among other shortfalls in capacity. The poor performance of the public sector especially in education, health and other social services has been the subject of a lot of debates in the last few decades. The dominant narrative has attributed implementation failures to corruption, lack of accountability, poor...

-The Hindu Housing prices have increased in the first quarter of 2018-19 compared to the same period in 2017-18, according to the Reserve Bank of India's latest House Price Index (HPI) release. HPI is an indicator of change in housing prices. This means that if the HPI has increased, house prices have increased on an average, and vice versa. It takes into account the average price of houses per square metre, size...

-Livemint.com The BJP’s ability to balance the demands of its upper caste and tribal voters in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will shape the election results in December Will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) successfully tide over anti-incumbency in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Rajasthan? Or will the Congress manage to return to power in these states and gain momentum in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections? The answers to these...

-Livemint.com The production of ‘mahua’ is finally entering the formal economy as new initiatives seek to upscale this indigenous drink, selling it across the country and even the globe It is a cloudy morning in Nangur village in Bastar district, Chattisgarh. It is a settlement of a little over 400 families, considered fairly large in these parts. We make a bumpy journey down a narrow, unpaved road intermittently shaded by sargi (sal)...

-Livemint.com With shrinking farm sizes and lack of accurate land records, farmers find it difficult to generate enough income to provide for their households From farm subsidies to farm loan waivers, the Indian government spends crores on farmer welfare, but these efforts will be inadequate unless they can tackle an increasingly daunting barrier: lack of land. The provisional figures from the latest agriculture census reveals how land—the most critical input for agriculture—is...