-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Inequality in India may be at its highest level since 1922, when the country's income tax law was conceived, with 22% income accruing to the top 1% income earners, a new paper released by economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel showed. "The top 1% of earners captured less than 21% of total income in the late 1930s, before dropping to 6% in early 1980s and rising...

-PTI Washington: Basu said from 2003 to 2011, India was growing typically over 8 per cent per annum. The year of global crisis, 2008, it dropped briefly to 6.8 per cent, but over 8 per cent growth had become the new norm for India. The downturn in India’s growth is “very worrying”, World Bank’s former chief economist Kaushik Basu said, underscoring that this is the “hefty price” the country had to pay...

-Huffington Post blog A result of dysfunctional municipal planning and governance. The flooding woes of Indian cities have hit the headlines yet again, with Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Agartala being among the worst affected. As for the response to these crises—there is enough evidence to indicate that the patchwork solutions that have been employed will work like steroid shots that might mitigate the issue temporarily, but worsen it in the future. Planning in...

-VillageSquare.in The estimated increase in cattle population due to growth in dairy farming and ban on cow slaughter will need increased production of fodder and restoration of common pastures to prevent livestock starvation Nashik (Maharashtra): The milk that we drink everyday does not appear from thin air. A dedicated amount of feed and fodder is needed for the cattle to survive and to produce milk. Providing the right quantity of feed is...

-Livemint.com The caste networks will disappear when the market economy starts to function efficiently The caste system is arguably the most distinctive feature of Indian society. The Indian population is divided into four hierarchical classes, or varnas, with a large sub-population of untouchables excluded entirely from the system. Within each of these classes, and among the untouchables, are thousands of castes, or jatis. The central rule in Hindu society is that individuals...