-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The national capital is not “smart”, neither are financial capital Mumbai, information technology hub Bengaluru and eastern India’s biggest city Kolkata. They actually wallow at the bottom of a global livability survey of 181 cities. The 2016 Cities in Motion Index (CIMI), prepared jointly by the Barcelona-based University of Navarrara’s IESE Business School and the Centre for Globalisation and Strategy, found Indian cities floundering on most parameters that...

-Livemint.com Have inequalities in educational access in India diminished in recent times? An NSSO survey offers some clues Education has for long been the key to moving up the economic and social ladder. There can be no equality of opportunity without access to quality education. Have inequalities in educational access in India diminished in recent times? The National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) most recent survey on education (71st round) conducted during...

-The Hindu India’s record in collecting taxes has been pathetic, and it is getting worse. The declining rates of direct taxation are an indication of the political choices of the government We now have a peculiar combination in the economic policy of India: a declared attempt at fiscal consolidation, combined with a reluctance to do what it takes to raise tax revenues. This unfortunate juxtaposition has meant a squeeze on Central government...

-The Indian Express A neat separation of poverty estimates and entitlements won’t pass muster. There was much hope about the work that Arvind Panagariya was mandated to do on the measurement of poverty. I, for one, have held from the 1980s that the official poverty line that emerged from a taskforce I chaired in 1976-77 should be shelved. Panagariya has reportedly suggested that the Tendulkar Committee’s report should be accepted for...

-The Hindu Business Line With various data sources at its disposal, the MoSPI is best suited for the task, say officials New Delhi: The task of establishing accurate benchmarks for defining ‘poverty line’ is likely to go to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation if the current thinking among the members of Niti Aayog task force on ‘Eliminating Poverty’ is anything to go by. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI)...