-The Hindu Business Line NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Friday indicated that there has been progress in the efforts to empower States to compete and improve on the basis of governance. “If States have to derive democratic dividends, the only way is to facilitate them to compete with each on the basis of good governance. There is good news that States in the country are beginning to take NITI Aayog’s rankings...

-The Hindu The Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 2018 increases the vulnerability of coastal people to climate disasters The National Democratic Alliance government has unleashed several extremely unimaginative developmental policies that target areas that have retained some degree of ecological value to turn them into sites for industrial production. This is despite evidence of the damaging effects of such policies. The latest instance of this is the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification...

-News18.com Acclaimed journalist and Founder-Editor of the People’s Archive of Rural India, P Sainath attributes the existential crisis confronting India’s agrarian society to macro-economic policies set in motion 25 years ago. Talking to Anuradha SenGupta, Sainath makes a case for state intervention in agriculture and says the Modi government, with its shifting positions and policies like demonetisation has only aggravated the assault on agrarian livelihoods. Dismissing the buzz about imminent new initiatives...

-The Hindu It is time to stand by those who are being jailed for activism or persons like Naseeruddin Shah who are raising questions about growing intolerance in the country, Professor Amartya Sen told reporters here on Monday. “There is growing intolerance compared to the past. Many activists are now jailed as Maoist sympathisers…it is extraordinary violation of human rights. Even Naseeruddin Shah is targeted. “We should stand by those who are targeted...

-The Hindu ‘Open defecation levels are still above 40% in ODF States; Swachh Bharat has not brought behavioural change’ New research on the impact of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the rural parts of four northern States shows that while open defecation has fallen and toilet ownership has increased, the percentage of people who owned toilets but continued to defecate in the open has remained unchanged between 2014 and 2018. This indicates...