-NDTV "UP is blithely undermining that very Constitution..." the letter's signatories said, pointing to high court rulings that said choosing a life partner was a "fundamental right" New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government's controversial anti-conversion ordinance has transformed the state into "the epicentre of politics of hate, division and bigotry", a letter signed by 104 former IAS officers, including former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and former...

-Outlook India A schoolteacher shot right through the eye, businessmen brothers disappeared, a jewellery shop looted of crores, even politicians murdered…Nitish is fast losing his USP. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar may have earned compliments for his Administration’s zero-tolerance policy towards crime in his previous three terms—closing the insulting Jungle Raj repeat-phrase that defined the state before his rule. But his latest tenure has thrown up a big challenge on the law...

-Newsclick.in The government must analyse its existing data collection exercises, rationalise them and improve the inefficient statistical Administration. It is good news that the Labour Bureau will revive its establishments-based Quarterly Employment Surveys or QES, using a larger sample. Since the Periodic Labour Force Surveys or PLFS collects data from households, the proposed quarterly survey of jobs will collect data from establishments. But it is advisable to review the multiple existing employment...

-The Indian Express Post 2014, two centralisations — of political and economic power — continue to reinforce each other, with profound consequences for the country and potential to define popular narrative in days ahead. The return of single-party dominance and its implications for politics after nearly 25 years of minority/coalition governments at the Centre (December 1989-April 2014) has been widely commented upon. As have concerns over rising corporate market power and their...

-Down to Earth Eviction drives come shortly after the J&K High Court declared the Roshni Act, allowed ownership of occupied government land against a fixed am Nomads of Jammu and Kashmir — mostly from the Gujjar and Bakkarwal communities living in temporary sheds or mud houses in forests and mountains — are being allegedly forcibly evicted by the government. Several videos of hutments being demolished surfaced in November 2020, triggering outrage from...