-Livemint.com In economic terms, it’s around a dozen years ahead of us, but the gap is much larger when social indicators are considered The spectacular rise of China over the past few decades has no parallel in human history. The People’s Republic of China was established 70 years ago this month under conditions of Economic Misery. It is today the main geopolitical challenger to the US. As a result of its profound...

-The Times of India (Voices) Recently the ever-eloquent and formidable P Sainath was with us and his story and visual image for the day was the contrast between the thirst and misery of the Marathwada drought, including scarcity of drinking water on the one hand, and on the other hand the luxury of independent swimming pools in each flat on every floor of a multi-storied building being advertised in Mumbai during...

-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-The Indian Express It is important to evaluate the consequences of the Centre’s agriculture policy. With elections around the corner, it’s too late for a course correction of the farm sector, but it’s an opportune time to document the unintended consequences of half-baked policies for the next five years. Otherwise, the momentum of existing policies will continue to feed rural Economic Misery. Agriculture GDP growth plummeted just as India’s agricultural trade surplus,...

-Livemint.com Despite claims of an economic recovery, rural wage growth of non-agricultural labourers continued to be in negative territory for the fourth month in a row Data released by the Central Statistics Office last month suggested a recovery in economic growth during the fourth quarter of 2017-18, with the economy expanding by 7.7% compared to that in the first quarter, when growth was at its lowest at 5.7%. This has given some...