-The Times of India CHENNAI: Unemployment rate in the country rose to 6.9% in October, the highest in two years, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. Worse still, the labour participation rate – a measure of the proportion of adults willing to work – fell to 42.4%, the lowest since January 2016, CMIE said. “Labour participation rate fell sharply after demonetization”, from around 47-48%, “and it has still not recovered,”...

-The Indian Express Hashimpura verdict highlights the bias within police against religious minorities. It is a chilling coincidence that on October 31, a date that marks the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the unleashing of state-engineered violence against the Sikhs, the Delhi High Court held 16 policemen of the 41st Battalion of UP Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) guilty of “the targeted killing by armed forces of the unarmed,...

-The Hindu One student is making a drone, another a dancing robot. Scenes from two government schools in Delhi The walls of the entryway of the school are covered with bright charts that talk about everything from sustainable development and ‘Swachh Bharat’ to ‘happiness goals’ and exam schedules. The cream-coloured floor gleams and the sun peeps out from the clouds behind the rows of students — dupattas pinned, shirts tucked in, not...

-Hindustan Times Every Rs 10 lakh invested in farm research pulled 328 people out of poverty; 26 people were helped by the same amount spent on subsidies. New Delhi: Are Indian farmers paying a price for sweeping agricultural input subsidies they enjoyed for decades and which they have taken for granted, from virtually free power to extremely low-priced fertilisers? Data from a landmark new research seem to suggest so. The research, by economist...

-Down to Earth While power consumption in agriculture is overestimated, a number of factors influence groundwater extraction. A new Study done by Pune-based non-profit Prayas shows that India’s agriculture sector cannot be held responsible for financial stress on electricity distribution companies (discoms) and for declining groundwater. The Study titled, Understanding the Electricity, Water & Agriculture Linkages, argues that not only is the subsidy given to agriculture in India overestimated, the relation between subsidy...