-The Hindu ‘It should portray culture and society’ The Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs has said that the coming census exercise “should not merely be data-oriented; rather it should portray the perspective of culture and society.” Members of the panel felt that since the current census has not commenced yet, an effort should be made on the part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) through the Registrar General of India (RGI) to...

-Down to Earth The Kala Talab has been filled with fly ash and soil to build residential colonies in the east Rajasthan city on the Chambal, resulting in crocodile deaths Some 50 mugger crocodiles have died in the last one month in a prominent waterbody of Rajasthan’s Kota city as a result of it being filled up for developmental activities, locals and wildlife activists have alleged. The Kala Talab (‘black pool’) is connected...

In the absence of income or expenditure-based headcount ratio, the growth in the real wages (i.e., nominal wages adjusted against retail inflation) of the manual workers is considered to be a good proxy to assess the trends in poverty. This is because the manual, unskilled/ semi-skilled labourers exist at the bottom of the pyramid or economic hierarchy, and most of them belong to the social categories Scheduled Castes (SCs) and...

-Frontline.in A Parliamentary Standing Committee pulls up the Rural Development Ministry in its report on a “critical evaluation” of the MGNREGA and calls for more investment in the scheme. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report of the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, tabled in February, strongly recommends enhancing the budget for implementation of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, higher wage rates, and increasing the number...

-TheFederal.com BJP’s second consecutive win in Uttar Pradesh shows the electorate’s overwhelming acceptance for Hindutva politics despite personal grievances against policies that have led to mass-scale unemployment, rising prices, and other issues that seemingly hit closer home BJP has not just broken the Uttar Pradesh jinx of 35 years to score the second consecutive win in the state assembly elections, its victory is going to set the course of Indian politics till...