Among the measures announced by the Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman on 23rd August, 2019 to arrest economic downturn, the following are noteworthy: * Allow Bharat Stage IV (BS-IV) vehicles (which are purchased till 31st March, 2020) to remain operational for the entire period of registration; * Government shall lift the ban on purchase of new vehicles for replacing all old vehicles by its various departments; *...

-Hindustan Times The Constitution promises religion-neutral citizenship. NRC and its fallout could upend that The controversy unfolding in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC), published on August 31, has brought to the fore important fault lines in the construction of citizenship in contemporary India. In particular, it places the spotlight on the role of key institutional actors – the bureaucracy and judiciary – in adjudicating citizenship. Crucially, the implementation of...

-Hindustan Times Prayagraj, or the erstwhile Allahabad, tops this unemployment list with an unemployment rate of 8.9%. It’s no mere coincidence that Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj has the dubious distinction of being the city with the highest unemployment rate in the country. Government record shows that a whopping 1.5 lakh unemployed youth are in the queue of those hunting jobs which are few and far in between. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in...

-The Telegraph Kerala surpassed other states in access to good healthcare, nutrition and quality education New Delhi: A report on child well-being in India rated Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh as the best states. The report released last week covered most of the major aspects of child well-being, health, nutrition, education and protection. The India Child Well-Being report by World Vision India, a humanitarian organisation, and IFMR LEAD, a non-profit research organisation,...

-The Economic Times Government’s forced mega merger of public sector banks could scupper economic recovery. I am not saying we maintain a Panglossian countenance, that we smile away every difficulty. But, in any real economy, the mood is very important,’ observed Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das, speaking at an event in Mumbai late August. Sound advice. Sentiment matters. Irrational despondency can be as damaging for the economy as ‘irrational exuberance’. But...