-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With the upper caste backlash over the government's aggressive pro-Dalit measures roiling the politics, will BJP execute the radical measure of sub-categorisation of OBCs or prefer to procrastinate on the expert commission's pending report? The question was uppermost on the minds of government insiders a day after the chairperson of the Commission tasked with drafting the sub-categorisation blueprint, Justice G Rohini, met Union minister Thavar...

-Down to Earth For every million rupees spent on agricultural research, 328 people are pulled out of poverty. In contrast, the same amount spent on power subsidies brings only 23 people come out of poverty. The message is clear. With the Union elections only a few months away, the Centre should prioritise capital investments over populist subsidies to deliver on its promise of strengthening the farm sector. This is important, especially when the...

-National Herald Maitreesh Ghatak, Professor of Economics at London School of Economics, in an interview to Tathagata Bhattacharya says the government has failed on many counts At the end of the day, it is growth and employment generation via new investment that is key to long-term economic progress. Various welfare schemes are a way of providing a social safety net to the poor in the short-run. It is performance along these two...

-The Hindu The former Chief Statistician on calculating GDP back series, on indicators of development, and the fall of the rupee The draft of the back series GDP data, which was made public by the government recently, is unlikely to change drastically even if other methods of calculation are used, says former Chief Statistician of India, Pronab Sen. The noted economist discusses GDP, employment and poverty data; the value of the rupee;...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of the Election Commission on petitions filed by Congress leaders seeking the use of voter-verified paper audit trail machines in randomly selected polling stations. A bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan posted the matter for further hearing to August 31. Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot have filed separate petitions seeking the use of VVPAT machines in "at...