-The Hindu In Bihar, ‘development’ comes laced with caste. For the upper castes, it is Modi’s pitch on investment that matters while for Backward Classes, Nitish’s social welfare agenda makes him a governance icon. The BJP, having no regional match for Nitish, has banked on Modi’s popularity. “Development” is a word that one encounters frequently across poll-bound Bihar, with people across caste lines using it to explain their political preferences. However, this...

-The Indian Express Scapegoating ‘hoarders’ and ‘speculators’ for the spike in Dal prices might have been effective in the 1960s. But today, it is only evidence of a rather sloppy conceptual policy framework. The pulse rate of a normal and healthy human body hovers between 60 and 100 beats per minute. There can be problems if it goes any higher — and a serious threat to life over 200 beats per...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi may claim that Dalits are being increasingly targeted under the present dispensation but statistics put out by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) during the last few years when UPA was in power show that crimes against Scheduled Castes rose almost steadily to 47,064 in 2014 from 39,408 in 2013 (19%), 33,655 in 2012 (17%), 33,719 in 2011, 32,712 in 2010 and 33,594 in...

-Livemint.com As long as farmers with access to irrigated land aren’t interested in growing pulses, supply and price shocks will keep haunting consumers and governments New Delhi: The centre’s efforts to contain prices of pulses during the festive season is showing few results on the ground. On Monday, retail prices of tur Dal (arhar or pigeon pea) climbed to Rs.205 per kg in Mysore in Karnataka and Rs.210 per kg in Puducherry,...

-The Times of India PATNA: After beef and quota controversies, the issue of escalating pulse prices has taken centre stage in campaigning for the Bihar assembly election. While Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Radha Mohan Singh have offered to bring down pulse prices by 50% within two days after NDA comes to power in the state, the Nitish Kumar government says the Centre is not serious about bringing down the prices...