-The Hindu Held to account by the Supreme Court, the Central government is using opaque methods to change the key provisions of the employment guarantee scheme and make it targeted instead of universal. There is a pithy saying in Hindi that the elephant has two sets of teeth, one for show and the other to eat. This seems an apt description of the approach of the Narendra Modi government towards the implementation...

-NDTV Sikkim, the small north eastern hill state, is the cleanest in India, with Kerala coming in a close second, according to a Swachhta (cleanliness) survey conducted by the National SAMple Survey Office (NSSO) on the condition of sanitation in rural areas of 26 states. Chhattisgarh and neighbouring Jharkhand placed last in the survey, which was carried out last year. “A survey on Swachhta status was conducted by NSSO during May-June 2015 covering...

-The Hindu How do various cities compare with each other in terms of crime? The ‘Crime in India 2015’ statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) last week answers these questions. Apart from national and state-level statistics, NCRB also compiles data for 53 major cities which have a population greater than 10 lakh. In 2015, 25 per cent of all crimes registered in major Indian cities that fell under the Indian...

-The Hindu The pursuit of full employment of labour cannot primarily rely on domestic private investment, much less FDI. Only public investment will steady us in the long run. We are increasingly told that the inflow of capital — particularly the foreign direct investment (FDI) variety — increases employment levels and contributes to economic growth. In a rare interview given to The Wall Street Journal in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reinforced...

-The Indian Express But they can’t make up their minds whether to farm, sell or give up their land to industry. Kolkata: Days after the Supreme Court judgment striking down the acquisition of land for Tata Motors’ car factory in Singur, the government is trying to prepare 997-acre plot for return to its original owners. But with the land’s agricultural potential still under a question mark, Agriculture Minister Purnendu Bose said...