-The Indian Express Competencies and achievements of young people will need to be aligned with expectations The Right to Education Act came into force in 2010. However, the trend towards universal elementary education was well in place before that. For example, for the age group 6 to 14, enrolment levels have been high and rising for quite some time. Even as early as 2005-6, the first Annual Status of Education Report...

-The Hindu Many States have initiated ‘reforms’ of the public distribution system that are hurting millions of people India’s public distribution system (PDS) is in danger of being derailed in several States across the country. Recent disruptions of the PDS have taken different forms, from compulsory biometric authentication to so-called direct benefit transfer (DBT). The consequences are alarming, but tend to go unreported. Biometric mix-ups Jharkhand is a prime example of this problem. By...

-Down to Earth Income inequality makes agrarian crisis challenging; inequality is worse among farmers than the formal economy Economists Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty recently concluded after a long study that inequality is at its peak in India. It is embedded in popular conscience: “Top 1 per cent of earners captured 22 per cent of total income in the country.” Their study–covering consumption, government accounts and income tax data from 1922...

-The Times of India blog With little over than a year left for the 2019 general elections, the Narendra Modi led NDA government has finally remembered the farmers of the country. Last week, finance minister Arun Jaitley said agriculture sector is the government’s top priority in this year’s budget. This has left many surprised considering BJP had promised to ensure a minimum of 50% profit over cost of production in their...

-Scroll.in Meanwhile, 55% of all Indians do not go to public hospitals to seek treatment. In 2017, India saw much uproar over the state of health facilities and medical services in the country. Rumours about vaccine safety dogged immunisation campaigns in some states, child deaths in government hospitals have raised questions about the state of public health facilities across the country, and large corporate hospitals have come under the scanner for...