-TheNewsMinute.com Caught between denialism and short-sightedness, vulnerable communities in Sivakasi bear the brunt of clampdowns due to air pollution. At the strike of a gavel in Delhi, lights go out in Sivakasi. When states located thousands of kilometres away place curbs, sales turn out to be a damp squib in the fireworks capital. Year after year, about 6.5 lakh people in Sivakasi dependent on the fireworks industry suffer from rude market shocks because...

-The Telegraph Challenges to economic recovery in India and the world remain The International Monetary Fund revealed its outlook for the world economy last week. A year and a half after the pandemic, global recovery remained reassuringly strong: the world economy is expected to grow a tad slower (10 basis points) this year at 5.9 per cent and at an unchanged pace — 4.9 per cent — next year. But the exit...

-Down to Earth The government’s flip-flop on stockholding limits does not help pulses’ pricing issues The Union government’s decision on July 2, 2021, to impose stock limits on pulses till October 31 has once again fuelled the long-held perception that the country’s food policies are not even consistent, let alone being relevant. On June 5, 2020, the Union government issued the Essential Commodities (Amendment) (ECA) Ordinance, 2020, which was later legislated into an...

-TheWire.in Latest survey data confirms the increasing importance of livestock activities, which should come as a signal for policy makers. While the latest decennial NSS 77th round Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households (SAS) shows some improvement in the total income of farmers from various sources, a 10-percentage fall in the share of income from crop cultivation has also been reported during this period, which should be a cause for concern to policy...

-The Hindu A precise caste census is difficult, but the data will be useful to drive social policy The idea of a national caste census might be abhorrent when the stated policy is to strive for a casteless society, but it will be useful to establish statistical justification for preserving caste-based affirmative action programmes. It may also be a legal imperative, considering that courts want ‘quantifiable data’ to support the existing levels...