-Live Mint   What explains the mystery of job growth slowing so drastically just when growth spiked up so rapidly? The health of the economy occupied the centrestage of the political battlefield this week, as the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) engaged in a spirited debate on India's economic performance. A major bone of contention was the slower pace of job growth in the UPA's 10-year...

-Down to Earth   100,000 young children and teenage girls are victims of 'bonded labour' in Tamil Nadu; dalit girls worse off An international organisation working for welfare of workers has drawn attention to the hazardous and exploitative working conditions of young girls working for the garment sector in Tamil Nadu. An estimated 100,000 children and teenage girls are working in extremely oppressive conditions in the spinning mills and garment factories in Tamil Nadu,...

-Live Mint   In Gujarat public funds are committed to supporting private investment. This does not benefit the poor Amidst the clamour of India's colourful 2014 general election, a public debate of great import for India's future is underway. Leading political candidates debate which development model is best suited for a country of vast economic potential and embedded historical impoverishment. Most opinion polls rate Narendra Modi as the front-runner in the 2014 general election....

-Economic and Political Weekly   The long-standing debate on growth and development has been renewed in recent works of Jagdish Bhagwati and Amartya Sen. This paper intervenes in this debate with evidence from Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu, which, unlike Kerala, did not have initial advantages over Gujarat, outperforms the latter on nearly every development indicator at the level of indicators as well as in the rate of change. This is despite Gujarat...

-The Business Standard Since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government decided to put on hold the Aadhaar-based subsidy transfer for domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), questions have been raised about the future of one of Congress' most ambitious initiatives aimed at plugging leakages. Two months after the government move, a pioneering study by economists Karthik Muralidharan, Paul Niehaus and Sandip Sukhtankar showed leakages dropped 12 per cent when smart cards were...