-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Niti Aayog is throwing open its doors to private sector experts to join the government think tank at all levels, including at secretary rank. Unlike in the past, when the bureaucracy would walk into government organisations, Niti Aayog's policy will ensure that officers have to compete for jobs with applicants from the private sector or academic institutions. Currently, top jobs are virtually reserved for officers from...

-Scroll.in India’s first chief statistician, Pronab Sen, is now country director of the International Growth Centre, which seeks to build effective growth facilities through engagement between policymakers and researchers. In this interview to Scroll.in, he speaks on the 50 days of demonetisation, its failings, its severe impact on the poor, the loss of credibility of the Reserve Bank of India, the push to make India a cashless or less-cash economy, and...

-The Hindu The tremendous power of the software industry in India may help explain why the disruptive effects of demonetisation are being taken lightly Evidence is mounting of the disruptive effects of the recent move to renew currency notes, known as “demonetisation”. Disruption is actually a mild expression. What is happening is a catastrophe for large sections of the population. Farmers have dumped vegetables by the roadside for want of a remunerative...

-Hindustan Times Engineering appears to be losing its attraction as a top career option among Indians. The number of students getting admitted to government and private engineering colleges and institutes — excluding IITs and NITs — is recording a steady decline, by at least 100,000 in the past two years. Barely half of the number of seats across the country got filled last year. The All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) discussed the worrying...

-Livemint.com A World Bank report cautions that the urban poor will bear the brunt of losses if cities don’t become more resilient to natural disasters, shocks, and stresses New Delhi: By 2030, without significant investment into making cities more resilient, climate change may push up to 77 million more urban residents into poverty, said a new report released by the World Bank on Wednesday. The report ‘Investing in Urban Resilience’ by the World...