-The Telegraph Radhakamal Mukerjee: an ecological pioneer In 1922, a professor at Lucknow University named Radhakamal Mukerjee published a book called Principles of Comparative Economics. Reading the book one hundred years later, I was struck by the attention it paid to the impact of the natural environment on the social and economic life of Indian villages. Mukerjee was perhaps the first Indian scholar to recognise the vital importance of common property resources...

-Down to Earth The employment scheme worked as a lifeline for rural Indian households during the COVID-19 pandemic Lack of awareness and complexity of application process hold women back from applying for work under the central government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), according to a recent report. Women beneficiaries struggled to enrol in the scheme, the report suggested. Most of them found enrolling for work a complex and time-consuming process....

-The Hindu Any state intervention inspired by Islamophobic views will only help deepen majoritarianism The Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to undertake a survey of madrasas has raised serious concerns not just over the fate of these institutions but also on the future of Muslim identity. Other BJP-ruled States have also expressed concerns about madrasas. In May, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the word ‘madrasa’ should cease to exist. In September,...

-The Tribune Status of paddy straw management in Haryana was 'significantly better than that in Punjab,' Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday said that the incidents of stubble burning had started increasing rapidly, especially in Punjab, accusing the State Government of not taking adequate steps to prevent them. Punjab “has not been able to take coordinated actions to contain stubble burning in the state” and coverage...

-The Hindu ‘Many didn’t get government benefits due to difficulties in procuring death certificates’ For every child who lost its mother, three children lost their father to the COVID-19 pandemic in Maharashtra. ‘Vulnerable Children of Maharashtra’, a report on the status of children orphaned by COVID-19 by Vidhi Maharashtra, an independent think tank, found that 22,760 children lost their fathers while 2,678 lost their mothers to COVID-19. The loss of either parent has a...