-Livemint.com * Out of the 1.8 million people living in the Banswara district in 3.6 lakh households, 78% are tribals * With a 46.1% literacy rate, 91.3% of households earn less than ?5,000 per month Banswara, Rajasthan: When Ramchandar, 52, wakes up in his thatched house every morning in the hilly tribal village of Katumbi in Rajasthan's Banswara district, his first preoccupation is to fetch water from the nearest village at a distance...

-The Hindu If it’s the government’s case that NSSO figures are suspect, what has it based policy decisions on? Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said last week, “we definitely have a data crisis,” and blamed academics for creating a “false narrative”. Yet, at the heart of the data crisis in India is the Central government, which has been holding back important data. Most recently, it did...

-The Hindu Business Line The former PM added that the economic stimulus that NYAY will provide will further help in fiscal discipline India's nearly $3 trillion economy has the fiscal capacity to absorb the expenditure to fund NYAY, the minimum Income Support scheme promised by Congress Party, without the need for any new taxes on the middle class, former Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, said. NYAY scheme -- announced by Congress...

-Livemint.com * Only 13% surveyed chose cash if it came at the expense of spending to improve public health and nutrition * The number grew to 35% if the cash came at the expense of improving roads New Delhi: A timely survey conducted in rural Bihar by a World Bank economist and two professors from the Georgetown University to gauge the response of poor people on the raging debate over a minimum income...

-The Hindu The provision of health, education and public services matters more than Income Support schemes It is by now close to 50 years since Indira Gandhi brought the idea of eradicating poverty into the electoral arena in India. ‘Garibi Hatao’ had been her slogan. She actually took the country some distance in the promised direction. Though it had not come close to being eradicated in her time, it was under her...