-The Indian Express Even as the government has been trying to shore up PSB books through equity capital infusion and other measures, stressed assets have registered a steady rise since 2011. New Delhi: Between April 2014 and April 2018, the country’s 21 State-owned banks ended up writing off Rs 3,16,500 crore of loans even as they recovered Rs 44,900 crore written off on a cumulative basis — or less than one-seventh the...

-TheWire.in Activists have argued that the purchasing power of the Rs 200 per month pension initiated in 2007 has already come down to Rs 93. New Delhi: On Sunday, about 10,000 elderly people from across the country came together at a Pension Parishad protest organised at Jantar Mantar in the capital demand universal pension rights for the elderly, single women, persons with disabilities, and other poor and vulnerable workers of the unorganised...

-The Telegraph Two reports, published every 3 months of the Quarterly Employment Survey, not released by the Narendra Modi govt New Delhi: Quarterly employment data considered reliable by even critics of the Narendra Modi government have not been released for this year so far, prompting concern the survey may be discontinued to hide potential warts that hold considerable significance in an election year. Two reports of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) are due...

-The Telegraph Our PM doesn’t seem sympathetic to the autonomy of academic institutions. He seems to promote the idea of delivery first, then funds: Andre Beteille New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday emphasised the autonomy his government had granted to higher-education institutions but several academics questioned the claim. Inaugurating a conference on education here, Modi termed the autonomy given to the IIMs “unprecedented”. Among the freedoms granted to the B-schools by the...

-The Telegraph With an overload of cane price arrears, V Kumara Swamy warns of a looming crisis for farmers Until a few years ago, you could tell the seasons in western Uttar Pradesh when you drove down its highways just by looking at the standing crops. In winter, one would see an unending landscape of swaying wheat and mustard, during summer it would be all sugarcane and paddy. These days, almost through the...