-The Hindu Business Line UN panel cites social norms, costs among barriers to digital inclusion of Poor women New Delhi: Wide gender gaps in access to the internet as well as mobile phone ownership threaten to “leave women behind” as countries develop, says a report by the UN high-level panel, calling for digital inclusion, especially of Poor women, to achieve one of the key Sustainable Development Goals — economic empowerment of women...

-Scroll.in / Factchecker.in NCRB data does not bear out the leaders' claim of lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh has reached “number one” in crime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on February 5, repeating the claim five days later. Similarly, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah said on February 3 that states ruled by the BJP have a better law-and-order record than Uttar Pradesh. The crime situation has been a constant refrain in...

-The Indian Express Demonetisation shows India’s social welfare measures like MGNREGS to be worryingly patchy Following the announcement of demonetisation, reports of its devastating impact on informal sector workers, farmers and migrants began to pour in from across the country. Seeking evidence on two questions — do social security measures work in the face of such an economic shock, and do these programmes themselves face disruption because of demonetisation — we conducted...

-The Telegraph After the third general elections held in 1962, the scholar-statesman, C. Rajagopalachari, wrote a fascinating, if now forgotten, essay on the imperfections of our young democracy. "The Indian electorate", remarked Rajaji, "suffers from well-known defects from which Western democracies are relatively free. The Indian voters are in great measure Poor and vulnerable to bribery: even a day's expense for food serves to buy a large number of the Poor...

-The Hindu Business Line It should have considered universal basic income. But sadly, budgets are not seen as a means to meet socio-economic goals The Union Budget attracts considerable media hype and debate. Democracy, if understood as a contract between the state and its citizens, may have to use the budgetary process to ensure not only prosperity for all, but justice or fairness to the most disadvantaged among them as well. A rational...