-The Indian Express Incomparable data sets, cherry-picking, and dubious statistical analysis are behind the claims of robust employment growth. Only 1.4 million jobs were added in 2017. Surjit Bhalla has invented an estimate that 15 million jobs were created in 2017 (‘Robust job growth, not fake news,’ IE, April 28). This is an invention; it is not a discovery or an inference by honest statistical analysis. It is an invention because Bhalla...

-The Telegraph Where Indian children stumble in Mathematics New Delhi: A national survey has found Class VIII pupils in Bengal performing below the national average in mathematics, and children across the country floundering in geometry, particularly in calculating the volumes of cubes and cylinders. The children, however, tended to do better with the algebra questions asked in the National Achievement Survey, conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training. Some 22 lakh...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy Menstrual hygiene, an essential building block of a woman’s health, suffers wanton neglect in India’s public discourse. Though public policies are in place, the progress made by India’s government, private, and civil society sectors is not in sync with the nation’s aspiration to be a global economic superpower. R. Sujatha, consultant on gender issues, and R. Gopinath, development economist, critique the steps taken,...

-The Times of India There is a saying in Harendragarh, a tribal village 50 km from Rajasthan’s Banswara town, that if a man eats the last rotla (chapatti) he will fall ill. So by default the last rotla, thinner than the rest and made from leftover dough along with the stale remains of the dal or vegetable made that day, would land on the plate of the woman of the house....

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A pilot study on the midday meal scheme has recommended splitting it into light snacks and a light meal because it found that 70 per cent children in government schools were coming to class on an empty stomach and failing to focus on studies. The study, conducted by the NGO Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute in the Sohawal and Masauda blocks of Faizabad district in Uttar Pradesh, reported that...