-The Hindu New Delhi: Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of deliberately creating and highlighting contention on national security issues as a political strategy, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav warned that the long term result would endanger national interests. He was speaking in the context of the BJP’s response to Congress leader SAM Pitroda’s comments on the Balakot air strikes, and other efforts by the BJP to “hijack the electoral agenda”...

-PTI New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday regretted that non-BJP ruled States, including West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, have not certified even a single farmer for transfer of the first instalment of Rs.2,000 under the PM-KISAN scheme. In the interim Budget 2019-20, the Central government had announced the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme under which Rs.6,000 per year will be given in three instalments to 12 crore small...

-The Indian Express Income support under PM-Kisan is only one small step. It must be complemented by large-scale reforms in agri-marketing and trade policies. Just ahead of the announcement of the 2019 general election dates, the prime minister launched the centrally sponsored ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMman Nidhi’ (PM-Kisan) scheme of Rs 75,000 crore for small and marginal farm families. On February 24, from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, he transferred the first...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The government is committed to maintaining the credibility of statistical organisations and the NSSO employment data would be released by month-end, a senior official said Monday as he dismissed concerns about alleged political interference in statistical data. The senior government official's comments come against the backdrop of as many as 108 economists and social scientists alleged "political interference" in statistical data in the country and called for the restoration...

-The Indian Express Fall in emigration, and reverse migration from the Gulf, challenge Kerala’s welfare model. The state must find a way Migration trends indicate that the Gulf, which had long funded the Kerala development story, may soon turn out to be a headache if not a nightmare. Economic slowdown in the Gulf countries, state policies favouring replacement of migrants with local labour, influx of workers from Africa and countries such...