-Networkideas.org The basic income scheme that is in the air these days, which amounts to handing over a certain sum of money to every household to ensure that it reaches a threshold cash income, is an extremely flawed scheme. Instead of enjoining upon the state the obligation to provide essential goods and services like food, education, and health, to its citizens, it absolves the State of all such responsibility, once it...

-The Hindu Business Line Not very, going by IMD gauge in Badnapur; insurers depend on Skymet AWS If you imagine a rain observatory as a centre with scientific equipment and team of Researchers monitoring data, you are mistaken. The writer visited a rain observatory in Badnapur town of Jalna district in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad division. This was in the terrace of the Gram Panchayat Office. The writer was taken aback by what she saw there:...

-The Indian Express A two-year-long study jointly undertaken by the SPPU, JNU and Indian Institute of Dalit Studies has revealed that only 22.3 per cent of the country’s higher caste Hindus own 41 per cent of the country’s total wealth Pune: Caste continues to play a significant role in the educational and professional choices available to an individual, and the resultant income and assets, reveals a two-year-long study jointly undertaken by...

-The Hindu Business Line The government should explain constant variations in GDP figures. India’s reputation for data credibility could suffer “The (revised GDP) numbers are the result of a hatchet job” tweeted former Finance Minister P Chidambaram after the Modi government published the back-series GDP data late November. Ahmed Patel, his colleague in the Congress party, added his bit: ‘In its desperate attempt to re-write GDP data, the government resembles a student...

-The Telegraph Daily requirement for Indian women less than that assumed for fortification plans Millions of women across India may face the risks of consuming excess iron under current government policies on food fortification and nationwide iron tablet supplementation for women of reproductive age, new research has suggested. A study has calculated that the average daily iron requirement for Indian women is 15mg and not 21mg as currently assumed and cautioned that fortification...