-Tehelka.com The Sen-Bhagwati ‘debate' on economic policy is focussing on the wrong issues Several things are quite remarkable about the recent debate between Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. The first surprise is that such a debate could become a major news item at all, making headlines and filling screen time on news channels, when it is about economic strategies that are normally discussed only in relatively small academic and policy...

-The Times of India Jayati Ghosh is an economist specializing in globalisation and employment in developing nations. Speaking with Ashish Yechury, Ghosh discussed the controversy over defining poverty, ideas about economic growth - and a season of 'Marie Antoinette' economists: * What's your view of India's poverty line? It's very good the media's realised our poverty line is ridiculously low. These lines were developed 40 years ago in a very different social,...

-The Hindu While many young Indians are showing an interest in marrying across caste, indications are that not many actually go ahead and cross caste boundaries. Recent research by Amit Ahuja, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California - Santa Barbara, and Susan L. Ostermann, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California - Berkeley, showed that more than half...

-The Economic Times The state-run Rubber Board is turning to the rural employment guarantee programme to increase India's natural rubber output from the present 9 million tonne a year. With rising global demand for rubber, the board is keen to extend the area under cultivation. It has identified 400,000 hectare in the North East, 100,000 hectare in Odisha and 50,000 hectare each in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh as areas with potential...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com Kozhikode: Dubai's agriculture minister recently chartered a flight to Kozhikode and, accompanied by a horticulture consultant, headed to the Agriculture Research Station (ARS) at Anakkayam nearby. There the minister, Abdulla Jassim Abdulla M Almarzooqi, placed orders for fruits, spices and ornamental plants. But on his mind was something bigger. He offered free visas and air tickets to the 100 members of the research station's agricultural army, which rather grandly goes...