-Down to Earth Among marginalised groups, indebtedness was highest in Muslim-majority and Scheduled Caste-majority hamlets Indebtedness became more acute in around 70 per cent hamlets surveyed in 75 Indian districts during October-December 2020, according to a study on the effects of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdowns. The figure was 76 per cent in the first few months following last year’s lockdown. There was a slight dip in the indebtedness of...

-The Hindu There is a need to acknowledge the project’s appeal and the intricacies of representation in order to counter it Modern democracies are erected upon the twin pillars of rights and representation. While rights define the minimum due of individuals and communities vis-à-vis the state, representation enables the diverse voices in a polity to be heard. However, most critiques interrogate Hindutva through the limited lens of representation, arguing that it essentially...

-ThePrint.in Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh says there were 78,923 vacant posts under reserved categories on 1 January 2020, and 42,066 of them remain unfilled. New Delhi: Over 42,000 posts reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) are vacant in various central government ministries, the Narendra Modi government has revealed. In a written reply presented before Lok Sabha, Minister of State (MoS) in...

-The Hindu Glaring gaps in faculty reservations at central educational institutions More than half of the faculty positions reserved for OBCs in central institutions of higher education are vacant, while about 40% of those reserved for Scheduled Castes and Tribes also remain unfilled, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank told Lok Sabha on Monday in a written response to a question from three Congress MPs. The situation is particularly acute in the elite Indian...

-Hindustan Times Women are not dropping out. They are being pushed out by the lack of demand for their labour. There has been movement out of agriculture into informal and casual jobs, where the work is sporadic, and often less than 30 days at a stretch. The new modern sector opportunities, especially in high value-added service sectors, mostly accrue to men. Why is women’s employment declining in India? The thrust of the...