-The Hindu The crisis in agriculture demands that the government announce a strong fiscal stimulus for the rural economy A rather confident statement heard in the midst of India’s COVID-19-induced economic slowdown is this: “Agriculture will lead India’s economic revival”. But how valid is this claim put forward by government spokespersons and some observers? Four major arguments are offered. First, India’s food grain production in 2019-20 was 3.7% higher than in 2018-19. The...

-The Telegraph In a statement, they have also drawn attention to the NIA’s decision to summon Partha Sarathi Ray, a scientist at the IISER, Calcutta, who, they said, has never visited the site of the violence More than 1,000 scientists and scholars have expressed concern over the National Investigation Agency’s actions on the Bhima-Koregaon violence in 2018, saying the agency appears to be using the probe to crack down on citizens critical...

-Press Note by People's Action for Employment Guarantee dated September 10th, 2020 MGNREGA during the pandemic and beyond: Implementation highlights, concerns and questions and demands for parliamentarians We are confronting an unprecedented crisis in the history of modern India. On the one hand, the increasing number of COVID cases point to a dubious distinction for India on the world stage. On the other hand, the unplanned lockdown has resulted in a massive...

-Firstpost.com While Odisha was being considerably ranked low in many indices at the national level, the most important feature of the State Government during the current time has been the dynamic and evolving governance structure India is home to half of the wasted children (those with a low weight for their height) globally, according to the recent Global Nutrition Report 2020. Moreover, more than a third (37.9 percent) of our children under...

-TheFederal.com It has no meaningful relationship to actual economic performances of states, has become a tool for govt to push through contentious reforms India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has released the ranking of States based on the implementation of the “Business Reform Action Plan” (BRAP) for 2019. The BRAP is a set of reform points for States, released by the central government. Relative levels of success in the implementation of BRAP...