-Livemint.com Evaluating the impact of MGNREGA on rural labour markets, and on urban labour markets via seasonal migration Policymakers and academics are actively debating the efficacy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and whether or not the new government should retain it in its current form in recent research. We have evaluated the impact of MGNREGA on rural labour markets, and on urban labour markets via seasonal migration....

-The Hindu The programme needs to retain the momentum of a movement than that of a litter-cleaning project "Slum districts... consisted of poorly built houses, a deficiency of ventilation and toilets, unpaved narrow streets, mud, and stomach-turning stenches due to the presence of decaying refuse and sewerage. In such conditions, ill health was observably endemic." This is not a description of Indian cities today (though it may well be), but of Britain around...

-Deccan Chronicle Chennai: The Chennai metro rail, in spite of being the most advanced mode of transport that is coming to the city, does not have any provision for toilets for its passengers. The design plan of none of the 31 stations shows toilets for passengers and officials confirm this. According to metro rail officials, the exclusion of toilets from the design is due to the fact that even Delhi metro...

-The Hindu The trajectory of the Narendra Modi government's education policy has been "disappointing and makes one apprehensive," said Dr. Devesh Kapur, Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on human capital, diaspora and political and economic change in developing countries. "It makes me apprehensive. I don't see any fundamental change in a view - common to our Left and...

-The Hindu A statistically faulty focus on rape has led to a misdiagnosis and a worsening of India's real problem: women's autonomy The recently reported rape of a young woman in a taxi in Delhi has brought back attention to India's sexual violence problem. The spotlight has been on the country since the horrific rape of a young woman aboard a bus in December 2012, an attack that killed her. The beginning...