-The Hindu The very process of development and change in India may be generating new forms of social and economic competition that manifest themselves in terms of social bias Popular debate around social biases in India is structured around two competing narratives. One view holds that as an urbanising country with rapid economic growth over the past few decades, the importance of ascriptive identities such as caste and religion is gradually eroding....

-Economic and Political Weekly India's scheduled tribes are among the most deprived socio-economic groups and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme has great potential in tribal areas. While the Andhra Pradesh government has made an effort to ensure implementation of the scheme in the scheduled areas, the gap between administrative orders and the grass-roots level is wide. This article lists measures that could radically improve implementation of the scheme...

The agrarian crisis is far from over. Amidst news of farmers' suicide reported from parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, an official document released in December by the National Sample Survey Organisation states that nearly 52% of India's agricultural households were indebted during July, 2012 - June, 2013. The average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in India was Rs. 47000 (see link below). Based on a survey of...

-Tehelka Adivasis and Dalits have been deprived of a staggering 5 lakh crore over three decades by successive governments. On 31 August 2010, a memorable scene played out in Parliament: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley cornered the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for allegedly diverting funds meant for the welfare of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs) towards Commonwealth Games projects. The master parliamentarian was questioning the then finance minister P Chidambaram on the alleged...

-The Hindu Business Line Despite long years of affirmative action in India, the higher bureaucracy at the Centre has less than 10 per cent representation from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), and not a single one from Other Backward Classes (OBC). Higher bureaucracy refers to officers at the level of Secretary, Special Secretary, Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary. According to a written reply by the Department of Personnel and...