-The Indian Express The reality of rural distress is sinking in only now for policymakers. There can be no better illustration of the vagaries of the weather than Chennai’s streets being inundated with water and the second India-South Africa cricket test in Bangalore suffering washout due to rains, even as drought stalks much of the country. That really is the case today, with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, southern and coastal Karnataka, Rayalaseema...

-Hindustan Times School textbooks in recent decades have frequently become battlegrounds for ideological contestation in India. Most textbook wars are to advance majoritarian perspectives on history and culture. However, a recent very different textbook skirmish broke out about the public and private sectors in healthcare. The story of this ideological clash is bemusing and instructive, illuminating competing perspectives on the nature of education, healthcare and markets in new India. This clash surfaced...

-Livemint.com The success of cash transfers will depend on how well the government addresses design bugs The recent economics conclave hosted by the finance ministry in the capital has rekindled the debate on cash transfers in India. Among the invitees to the conclave was one of the most vocal critics of India’s transition to direct cash transfers, Jean Dreze, a development economist and an advisor to the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA)...

-NDTV In a few days, on the 29th of November, a group of four safai karmacharis (sweepers) and three beldars (diggers) along with three more senior persons, all working for the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), will be returning from a week-long official trip to Japan and South Korea where they are learning first-hand about sanitation, cleanliness, waste disposal as well as the maintenance of urban colonies, markets etc. The NDMC...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Nearly half of the country's 676 districts are in the grip of drought due to deficit monsoon rainfall, but most of the affected states have so far not even approached the Centre for assistance after doing their ground surveys. Since agriculture is a state subject, the states' casual approach may not only adversely impact farmers who have already lost their kharif (summer) crops due to less...