-TheWire.in Millions have been displaced, while a loss of crop and reduced yield are expected across the state. For the past few months, Bihar has been making headlines for many reasons. Disease outbreak, mob lynching or the state’s political affairs have seen it receive plenty of media coverage. But the state is now in the news for concurrently facing two natural disasters: drought and flood. This is not the first time that Bihar...

In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...

-Scroll.in Democracy requires a national character that isn’t grounded in ignorance and government policy that is not a sophisticated version of Whatsapp. It is now clear &NDAsh; 1,020 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told India he was wiping out 85% of its currency, by value &NDAsh; that demonetisation was not just a failure but a spectacularly misconceived move. That its destructive effects took at least 100 lives in its immediate aftermath,...

-TheWire.in There is little doubt that the smaller stakeholders and businesses within India's informal economy have the most to lose, and yet their voices are not being heard. “Concluding RCEP [Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership] this year is the region’s ‘collective interest and highest priority’”, trade ministers of the proposed pact are reported to have announced after their meeting in China in early August 2019. India was interestingly not represented by trade minister Piyush...

-Scroll.in More than a tenth of GDP is provided by government expenditure. This is (more) bad news for the Indian economy. In 1773, the British Parliament passed the Regulating Act, appointing a governor general to oversee all of British India. This law marked the beginnings of the Central government of the British Raj, the single most significant institution to shape the Indian subcontinent for the next two centuries. It continues till today...