-The Telegraph   There is no jargon in Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s brand of economics — there are only blankets and bicycles and other such mundane things that he feels the poor need. And he even got a nod from a man who has received the Nobel Prize for economics. Speaking at a discussion, flanked by Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, an economics Nobel laureate and Lord Meghnad Desai, professor emeritus at the London School...

-The Indian Express Indian bureaucracy is the worst in Asia with a 9.21 rating out of 10, according to a report by a prestigious consulting firm based in Singapore. India fared worst than Vietnam (rated at 8.54), Indonesia (8.37), Philippines (7.57) and China (7.11), said the report released today by Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. Singapore remained the best with a rating of 2.25, followed by Hong Kong (3.53), Thailand...

Interventions aimed directly at children — providing free textbooks, uniforms and addressing out of school children – account only for 6 per cent of the total investment in elementary education. The largest investment — 78 per cent — of the education budget in India is invested in teachers and management costs while the next largest spending, to the tune of 14 per cent, is done on creating school infrastructure. Only...

Agrarian distress and growing awareness among farmers, tired of poll-time rhetoric and freebies, may make it tougher for political parties to woo this large electorate with worn-out promises in the upcoming assembly polls.  Ahead of elections in five states, including in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous and politically-critical state, many farmers say they are ready to pay market rates for power and other inputs provided there is reliable supply.  Swarn Singh,...

Three bills the Centre has lined up to regulate higher education have been described as “draconian” by private institutions, which fear their enactment will bring the segment under a “police raj”. Two of the bills provide for jail terms and stiff fines to ensure that colleges and universities obtain accreditation before — and not after — starting courses and refrain from making exaggerated claims to attract students. For instance, under the “unfair...