-Tehelka Despite the serious toll it takes on women's health, female sterilisation remains the most prevalent form of contraception in India. While memories of the 21 months of Emergency in 1975-77, imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, survives even today in the minds of Indian men as the fear of forced sterilisation, the country's population control policies have shifted over the years since then to target the politically less...

-The New Indian Express   PADERU (VISAKHAPATNAM DT) : It looks like there is no end to the plight of tribals in Agency areas of the district. They are being fleeced, cheated and robbed almost in every sphere of their lives. Here is a classic example of how the ‘shahukars' or the money-lenders loot the tribals with the banned instruments of measuring foodgrains. The ‘shahukars' shortchange the tribals as the latter barter their...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Through a two-way process comprising text analysis of the policy framework of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme and analysis of empirical data collected through interaction with policy implementers, teachers, students, experts, etc, this article puts forth the argument that urban education system has failed partly because of the inability of the implementers to plan, manage and facilitate the programme. Monika Banerjee (banerjie77@gmail.com) is with the Zakir Husain Centre...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to dismantle the Planning Commission has led to revelations from some of the body's former stalwarts about past attempts to reform the Soviet-era institution that were repeatedly thwarted, culminating in a tense farewell for Manmohan Singh last May. The panel that has steered India's economic management and vision for 64 years without any constitutional mandate has needed radical surgeries for years but was...

-The Indian Express A headlong rush into PPPs will only leave a trail of disputes, renegotiations, corruption. The conventional wisdom in India on public-private partnerships (PPPs) is that they help governments raise capital to meet large infrastructure investment targets. But this rationale for promoting PPPs does not stand on strong foundations. There are three potential reasons for supporting PPPs. First, they enable governments to access more capital without visibly breaching fiscal targets. In...