India may keep on hold plans to raise prices of subsidised food grains for welfare schemes to cut its subsidy bill, unwilling to take an unpopular step when inflation remains high, a government source said on Thursday. The senior food ministry official, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters the proposal was before the Union cabinet and “seems to be put in abeyance for the moment”. He was responding to...

In our 63rd year of Independence, the Right to Education Act comes into effect on April 1. On the eve of its launch, the Union education minister has balanced our perspective by another resolve. India’s enrolment rate for higher education is around 12 per cent. He would increase this to 30 per cent, in line with the advanced nations. There is only one snag. Unlike in advanced countries, one Indian in...

Increased representation for women can unleash a broader process that can be set in motion by the strength of sheer numbers. One measure of whether it is important to have women in important policy formulation roles is to examine how a largely male-dominated system of government has served women. It turns out that India performs very poorly in this regard. Despite a few heartening examples to the contrary, in general Indian...

Kaushik Basu, the current Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance, had a 15-year-long stint as Professor of Economics at Cornell University. The Padma Bhushan awardee has been working closely with the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister to chart the country’s future growth path. He spoke to MANAV CHOPRA about the need for better monitoring to ensure growth doesn’t happen at the expense of social justice. Excerpts: A common...

The right to development is not a right to pollute.  As the debate over India's climate change strategy continues, it is necessary to address some misconceptions about climate equity that are evident in recent pronouncements of the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, and the writings of his most recent adviser, Dr. Arvind Subramanian. A solution to climate change, even an inequitable solution, has to address our planet's energy...