-The Hindu Under a searing sun, the Agariyas continue to make salt in the Little Rann of Kutch just as their ancestors have done down the ages A pair of black gum boots stands in the Corner of Dhirubhai’s temporary shack, his home for eight months in the Little Rann of Kutch. The shack, built entirely of jute bags and plastic sheets and propped up by bamboo poles, houses nine members of...

-The Hindu Business Line Chennai: National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), a national insurance scheme that will be effective from April 1, is likely to provide insurance cover to 70 per cent of the population. By this scheme, each family will get health cover up to ?1 lakh as opposed to ?30,000 under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the current health insurance scheme. An additional ?30,000 will be provided for senior citizens...

-The Indian Express The enhancement of state powers without control or transparency is not being done against our wishes The clamour for security, accountability and transparency is leading to unfettered increase in the power of states. We are enacting law after law, introducing technology after technology, to render citizens transparent to the state. But at the same time, we are weakening protections and consenting to technologies in a way that makes the...

-Caravan Magazine Arun Kumar is an eminent economist who has been studying the black economy in India for close to four decades. His 1999 book The Black Economy in India is among the foremost accounts of the black-money problem in the country. In Understanding the Black Economy and Black Money in India: An Enquiry into Causes, Consequences and Remedies, released in February 2017, Kumar discusses the misconceptions around black money, the...

-VillageSquare.in Independent and small beekeepers are uniting against adulterated and diluted honey sold in the domestic market by companies fighting a price war Amravati (Maharashtra): After a long hiatus of eight years, the purple-colored Karvi flower (Strobilanthes callosus) bloomed in the low hills of western Maharashtra, heightening the spirits of people like Ashok Shelar of Warsoi Koli village, neighboring Maharashtra’s favorite hill station, Mahabaleshwar. A proud owner of 80 bee colonies, he...