-Livemint.com The best way to double the real incomes of Indian farmers would be to halve their numbers through job creation in other parts of the economy The Narendra Modi government last week announced sharp increases in minimum support prices (MSPs) for a variety of farm products. The move itself is not unexpected. The first sign that the Modi government would shift away from its earlier strategy of minimal hikes to douse...

-Livemint.com Rural workers’ real wage rate growth was very high in 2014, but has fallen dramatically since then Rural wage growth for men for both agricultural and non-agricultural occupations (simple average) was 3.53% in March from a year ago. But consumer price inflation for rural India was 4.44% in March. That MEAns the real rural wage growth, or wage growth after taking inflation into account, was negative during the month. In other...

-The Hindu Punjab needs a sober, well-thought-out strategy to deal with drug abuse During the campaign for the Punjab Assembly elections last year, Amarinder Singh, then the Congress’s chief ministerial candidate, had pledged to eradicate the State’s drug problem within four weeks of coming to power. Given the complexity of the issue, hardly anyone took his pledge seriously but it did convey his concern. After coming to power, Capt. Singh took little...

-Scroll.in With smart classrooms, English lessons and more, a government campaign is restoring parents’ confidence in public schools. For the first time in 25 years, public schools in Kerala registered a year-on-year increase in student enrolment this year. It is a significant ahievement given that 5,715 schools were functioning without adequate student strength till 2016. Data released by the education department last week showed that a little over 1.8 lakh students joined...

-The Hindu Constitutions are needed not only to limit wielders of existing power but to empower those traditionally deprived of it The recent judgment by the Supreme Court clarifying the respective jurisdictions of Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor and its elected representatives and specifying the limits of their powers once again underlies how fortunate we are to have the Constitution. Why should gratitude be expressed for living under a constitutional democracy? Why do we...