-The Telegraph New Delhi: An analysis of hunger levels worldwide released today has ranked India 97 among 118 countries with one in three children in the country facing stunted growth and 15 per cent of the population undernourished from lack of food. The Global Hunger Index 2016, an assessment by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), has placed India behind Bangladesh, Nigeria and Rwanda and just ahead of North Korea in...

-The Hindu A more progressive Central law on land acquisition is now in place, but several States have already either amended the new law or enacted legislation of their own. On August 31, the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath Yadav v. State of West Bengal delivered one of the most momentous decisions of the year. It invalidated the expropriation of land in Singur by the erstwhile Left Front government in Bengal, and...

-Down to Earth A new report by the World Bank finds that extreme poverty is falling globally A new World Bank study on poverty and shared prosperity says that extreme poverty continues to fall worldwide despite the lethargic state of the global economy. However, the report warns that given projected growth trends, reducing high Inequality may be necessary for reaching the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030. In 60 out of the...

-The Hindu The sense of impunity that drives discrimination against Dalits is at the heart of recent demands for the dilution, or even repeal, of the Act for prevention of atrocities against SCs and STs It is the sense of impunity nurtured by caste hierarchy that prepares the social ground for the “shockingly cruel and inhumane” crimes against Dalits called atrocities. It is this impunity that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled...

-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...