-The Times of India Despite more access to education, better household amenities and increased incomes, the economic gap between upper castes and dalit and tribal communities continues unchanged over the years, according to latest economic data from the NSSO. A comparison of average monthly expenditure of households belonging to dalit communities with upper caste households showed that in rural areas there was a gap of about 38% in 1999-2000 which changed only...

-The Indian Express Indian farmers are under stress this year. Earlier, many of them lost their crops in the kharif season, which was almost a drought with monsoon rains falling 12 per cent below their long-period average. Now unseasonal rains have impacted them adversely in the rabi season. Agri-GDP growth this year, expected to be a meagre 1.1 per cent before the unseasonal rains, may fall flat to just zero, if...

-Business Standard Assocham-Skymet report, however, says untimely rain likely to reappear in north India in 5-6 weeks India's southwest monsoon, which accounts for almost 80 per cent of the country's total precipitation, is expected to be normal this year, predicts a joint study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry and private weather forecaster Skymet. However, there would be pockets where the showers are expected to be deficient. These include Himachal Pradesh,...

-The Hindu Lauds Finance Commission recommendations for revenue share Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said on Friday that calculations showed that the total transfers from the Centre to the States as a percentage of the divisible pool of its net tax revenue would remain nearly the same even after the acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission's recommendations. However, transfers from the Central government would no longer be scheme-and-grant-based, and it would rather be...

-PTI   In an alarming news about the quality of air in Delhi, a survey has found the deadly PM2.5 levels in the national capital was 10 times higher than the safety limit prescribed by the World Health Organisation. Air quality monitoring survey conducted by Greenpeace inside five prominent schools in the city also found that the PM2.5 levels were four times more against the prescribed Indian safety limits. "The real-time monitoring data from...