-The Hindu Instead of focusing on increasing rural wages, the BJP-led government is wasting resources on the NPR and NRC The National Population Register (NPR) and a possible National Register of Citizens (NRC), which will unleash a humanitarian crisis, are being pushed at a time when rural distress is acute. With the Budget due soon, let’s look at how the BJP-led government has served the interests of the rural poor. A grim picture The...

-Livemint.com Taking into account a likely shortfall in revenue and off-budget spending, the real fiscal deficit could be as high as 5.5% of GDP in the current fiscal Mumbai: As India’s economic slowdown has intensified, so has the debate on whether the government should stick to fiscal consolidation or run a higher deficit to push growth in the upcoming budget, due on 1 February. However, data on revenue available so far suggests that...

-India Spend Mumbai: Poverty and lack of opportunity in their hometowns drove 93 million Indians from disadvantaged castes and tribes in 2011 to migrate to other areas within their states in the hope of securing education or employment. However. they continue to face social segregation, labour market discrimination and barriers to accessing the most basic services, finds an analysis of Census data and research studies by India Migration Now, a Mumbai-based...

-World Meteorological Organisation The year 2019 was the second warmest year on record after 2016, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s consolidated analysis of leading international datasets. Average temperatures for the five-year (2015-2019) and ten-year (2010-2019) periods were the highest on record. Since the 1980s each decade has been warmer than the previous one. This trend is expected to continue because of record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Averaged across...

-India Spend New Delhi/ Bengaluru: Any document related to the date and place of birth can be submitted to prove citizenship for National Register of Citizens, the government has said, but a large number of Indians, especially older citizens, do not possess birth certificates, an IndiaSpend analysis shows. Three in five children (62.3%) under the age of five had their births registered and possessed a birth certificate in 2015-16, according to National...