-The Hindu Bengaluru: During the survey, enumerators will be asking 55 questions to the household and not all questions are mandatory to be answered. The first caste census, which will be conducted across the State over the next 20 days, got underway on Saturday. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy flagged off the census in Bengaluru in the presence of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner M. Laxminarayana and Backward Classes Commissioner H. Kantharaj. Mr. Reddy...

-The Hindu How much and what people eat and what work they do differs significantly by caste, new data from the National Sample Survey Office show. However, these differences are likely to be correlated, rather than caused by caste. The NSSO released two new reports this week: one on household consumption expenditure by a social group and the other on employment and unemployment by a social group. The data show that...

-The Hindu It measured impact of reservation on productivity in Railways A first-of-its-kind study of the impact of reservations in public sector jobs on productivity and efficiency has shown that the affirmative action did not reduce productivity in any sector, but had, in fact, raised it in some areas. In the pioneering study, Ashwini Deshpande, Professor at the Delhi School of Economics, and Thomas Weisskopf, Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan,...

-The Hindu The very process of development and change in India may be generating new forms of social and economic competition that manifest themselves in terms of social bias Popular debate around social biases in India is structured around two competing narratives. One view holds that as an urbanising country with rapid economic growth over the past few decades, the importance of ascriptive identities such as caste and religion is gradually eroding....

The agrarian crisis is far from over. Amidst news of farmers' suicide reported from parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, an official document released in December by the National Sample Survey Organisation states that nearly 52% of India's agricultural households were indebted during July, 2012 - June, 2013. The average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in India was Rs. 47000 (see link below). Based on a survey of...