-The Hindu Business Line Sociologist Dipankar Gupta discusses the dynamics of political mobilisation and the Politics of reservation. Excerpts from an interview to Poornima Joshi: * The Indian state’s failure to provide the basics — universal education and healthcare — has never become the rallying point for political mobilisation. Why is that? The more cleavages of class, caste, language, race a society has, the more difficult it is to practise democracy. Democracy works...

-Livemint.com * The Narendra Modi government launched a host of schemes, but most of them have had no visible impact * According to NSSO, joblessness among rural men in the 15-29 age group tripled to 17.4% in 2017-18, compared to that in 2011-12 Shiv Prasad has a plan—one that he feels can change his destiny. The daily wager from Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region has experienced crushing poverty, trying to provide for his 10-member...

-ThePrint.in French economist defends Congress' minimum income guarantee scheme, says India's poor have been 'badly treated by the country's elite'. New Delhi: French economist Thomas Piketty has defended the Congress party’s poll promise of minimum income guarantee (MIG), saying that India’s poor have been “badly treated by the country’s elite”. “It is high time to move from the Politics of caste conflict to the Politics of income and wealth distribution,” Piketty said in...

-Livemint.com If you want to give a cash benefit, do it without distinguishing between farmers and non-farmers A toothless NITI Aayog is trying to flex its muscles on India’s statistical system. And in doing so, it is destroying its credibility NEW DELHI: The income support scheme announced in the interim budget for small and marginal farmers is both regressive and inefficient, because it neither includes the poorest landless farmers, nor does it...

-ThePrint.in Rahul Gandhi’s announcement is certainly good Politics, but does it make for good economics? Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s announcement on a minimum income guarantee for the poor, coming days before the Narendra Modi administration unveils its own income support plans in the interim budget, certainly makes for good Politics. But does it make for good economics? With the stress on farmer incomes and rural wages reaching crisis proportions, efforts to loosen the...