-The Hindu Celebrities or rich people often get reprieve by claiming to suffer from kleptomania, says anti-torture group Data culled from the annual reports of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from 1996-97 to 2017-18 have revealed that 71.58% of the custodial deaths in India were of people from poor or marginalised sections of society, said a statement by an anti-torture group issued on Thursday to mark the United Nations Human Rights...

-The Hindu The government’s economic recovery hype is off track and this is not a time for fiscal conservatism Preliminary evidence that India’s economy contracted by 7.5% in the second quarter of financial year 2020-21 was, as news, both good and bad. Good because that figure is far lower than the 23.9% contraction registered in the first quarter of this financial year. Bad because a 7.5% second quarter contraction is high both...

Preliminary findings of a survey among 3,994 respondents from 11 states reveal that most vulnerable households and communities, such as SCs, STs, OBCs, PVTGs, slum dwellers, daily wage labourers, farmers, single women headed households, etc. continue to witness depressed incomes during September-October in comparison to their income levels prior to the lockdown. The face-to-face survey conducted by the Right to Food Campaign and Center for Equity Studies (instead of telephonic...

-Altnew.in Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, found himself in the middle of a controversy when he was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, “Too much of democracy hampering reforms in India” while speaking at a virtual event organised by Swarajya Magazine. Kant took to Twitter to deny saying these words. “This is definitely not what I said. I was speaking about MEIS scheme & resources being spread thin & need...

-The Hindu Public works could provide valuable support to the urban poor, especially if women get most of the jobs The COVID-19 crisis has drawn attention to the insecurities that haunt the lives of the urban poor. Generally, they are less insecure than the rural poor, partly because fallback work is easier to find in urban areas — if only pulling a rickshaw or selling snacks. Still, the urban poor are exposed...