-The Hindu There are many parallels but also important differences between the current protests and the JP movement of the 70s, says this eminent historian A historian of modern India, Gyan Prakash is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University and author of the 2018 book Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and Democracy’s Turning Point. He compares the current situation in the country to the turmoil of the 70s. Excerpts: * How would...

-The Hindu Among this year’s Padma Shri awardees are a father and daughter who turned a barren wasteland into a riot of trees and crops Furrowed with deep gullies, its topsoil all but gone, this degraded patch of land near Odagaon in Odisha’s Nayagarh district was once a dense forest. Whenever nature tried to reclaim it, the little shoots would be nibbled away by goats and sheep. The villagers who owned the...

-Reporters without Borders Six months to the day after the Indian government blocked all communications in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August, after revoking its autonomy, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reveals what it is like for journalists trying to Work in this territory in the wake of the federal government’s recent measures, which have had little real impact. Kashmiris had few illusions. A week after the supreme court...

-Frontline.in The Budget lacks any serious effort to address the main issues of unemployment, agrarian distress and falling incomes, revealing a high level of official insensitivity. A Budget during a time of recession, increasing unemployment, agrarian distress, falling incomes, demand constraint and malnutrition would have done well to first acknowledge the mess that policies have created and then taken steps to provide employment, boost rural incomes, increase purchasing power and thereby demand. Coming...

-Newsclick.in The Economic Survey 2019-20 indicates that the government’s broad policy direction will remain the same -- of neglecting the social sector and serving the interests of the big businesses. This year’s Economic Survey begins with emphasising the importance of wealth of nations (inspired by Adam Smith) and depicts long-term contributions of the US, China, India and various other countries in world GDP (gross domestic product). The shares of China and India...