-PTI/ The Hindu Indian development economist Jayati Ghosh is among 20 prominent personalities appointed by the United Nations to a high-level advisory board that will provide recommendations for the U.N. Secretary-General to respond to the current and future socio-economic challenges in the post-COVID-19 world. Ms. Ghosh, 65, is a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University for nearly 35 years and has authored...

-The Indian Express Bihar order against criticism of government online is against governance. The Chief Minister must scrap it. The Bihar government’s decision to designate “objectionable and indecent” comments made online against the state government or its ministers, MLAs, MPs and officials as cyber-crime is one more example of elected governments abusing their power to buy themselves a Teflon shield against criticism, dissent and accountability. In November last year, the Kerala government...

-The Indian Express An Oxfam report, titled ‘The Inequality Virus’, has found that as the pandemic stalled the economy, forcing millions of poor Indians out of jobs, the richest billionaires in India increased their wealth by 35 per cent. A new report by Oxfam has found that the Covid pandemic deeply exacerbated existing inequalities in India and around the world. The report, titled ‘The Inequality Virus’, has found that as the pandemic stalled...

-The Hindu The agriculture sector’s performance has not been commensurate with the increasing subsidised credit it receives Farmers on the warpath would mean that agriculture reforms have again occupied centrestage not just in the minds of the politicians but also policymakers. To enable small farmers to diversify their crops or improve their income they must have access to credit at reasonable rates of interest. This has been an agenda of the triad...

-The Indian Express Since 2016, the share of sexual crimes in the list of crimes for which trial courts are imposing death penalty has been steadily increasing. From 17.6 per cent in 2016, it jumped to 37.27 per cent in 2017, 41.1 per cent in 2018 and 53.39 per cent in 2019. New Delhi: Corresponding to the legislative expansion of death penalty for sexual crimes against women, more than 65 per cent...