-The Telegraph New Delhi: Academic degrees and certificates are set to go digital. Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar today revived a UPA initiative aimed at setting up a national academic depository to provide degrees and diplomas in a digital format. Javadekar, however, dressed up the initiative as a brainchild of the NDA government, saying the depository was a step towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India vision. Unlike the UPA's decision...

-Hindustan Times Contrary to the state government’s claims, the response to the Prime Minister Crop Insurance scheme in Maharashtra is lukewarm. About 49 lakh farmers have registered for the insurance this year against the last year’s number of 83 lakh farmers. On the backdrop of the three droughts in the last four years and the similar situation in some other states, the state and central governments had announced to implement the insurance...

-The Hindu The pursuit of full employment of labour cannot primarily rely on domestic private investment, much less FDI. Only public investment will steady us in the long run. We are increasingly told that the inflow of capital — particularly the foreign direct investment (FDI) variety — increases employment levels and contributes to economic growth. In a rare interview given to The Wall Street Journal in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reinforced...

-The Hindu A reasonable aim of 1,500 MT of coal production by 2022 and a calibrated renewable energy push should enable reaching ambitious targets. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style is to set ambitious targets with impossible-looking deadlines. Perhaps he is inspired by a Gujarati poet who said, “Nishaan chuk maaf, nahi neechu nishaan” (missing the target can be forgiven, setting a low target cannot). This challenges his colleagues and staff to accomplish...

-The Indian Express While crimes against Dalits are increasing, the state has time and again let them down, with little action against the perpetrators. Atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are a regular feature of the caste-based Indian society and distressingly, of late, they have begun increasing. What is ironical is that only recently, the country commemorated the 125th birth anniversary of B .R. Ambedkar, the icon of the...