-Livemint.com Labour unions are reinventing their strategy to stay relevant in today’s world New Delhi: Ajitesh Pandey, a law student in Calcutta University, is excited about the 2 September strike called by labour unions. With almost child-like enthusiasm, the member of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), has been sharing pictures, slogans, and details related to the protest with his friends and colleagues. Pandey’s excitement reflects a surprising vibrancy in how unions...

-The Indian Express While crimes against Dalits are increasing, the state has time and again let them down, with little action against the perpetrators. Atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are a regular feature of the caste-based Indian society and distressingly, of late, they have begun increasing. What is ironical is that only recently, the country commemorated the 125th birth anniversary of B .R. Ambedkar, the icon of the...

-The Hindu Democracies are not sustained by obedient productive units in so-called knowledge-based economies. But that is precisely what the new National Education Policy envisages “Public policy,” according to Douglas Gomery, “is the making of governmental rules and regulations to benefit not one individual but society as a whole. It asks, what is the best way to conceive and evaluate policies aimed at the public as a whole and its various subgroups?”...

-Livemint.com Have inequalities in educational access in India diminished in recent times? An NSSO survey offers some clues Education has for long been the key to moving up the economic and social ladder. There can be no equality of opportunity without access to quality education. Have inequalities in educational access in India diminished in recent times? The National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) most recent survey on education (71st round) conducted during...

-Down to Earth Blog MGNREGA has been successful in Madhya Pradesh. Can the scheme also provide solutions for the current drought in the region? Sevanti Bai (45) lives alone in a village in Madhya Pradesh. Her husband died fifteen years ago, owing to health complications. With no land or children to depend on, she fends for herself by engaging in ‘rojgaar guarantee, as the locals call the scheme. MGNREGA, she says, has...