-The Indian Express The lynching of a tea estate owner in Jalpaiguri last month has stirred up trouble in the already edgy tea gardens of north Bengal, where lockouts, labour unrest and poverty form a volatile mix. It's all quiet at Labour Lines, the workers' quarters of Sonali Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri. It has just been two days since Rajesh Jhunjhunwala, the 45-year-old owner of the tea gardens, was lynched by a...

-Livemint The development economist on the Modi government's initiatives and his stand on them, and MGNREGS The Narendra Modi-led government should consider replacing inefficient subsidies with a basic monthly income for all citizens, says Pranab Bardhan , emeritus professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Bardhan, who recently sparred with economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya in a debate over the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS),...

-The New York Times NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Last month, the United States and India announced an Important breakthrough concerning India's "right-to-food" program. The Indian government subsidizes food for its poorest citizens through a system of price supports and public stockpiling. The program is critical to India's future: According to Unicef, one in three of the world's malnourished children lives in India. But as India's policy has expanded, it has come into...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The High-Level Committee set up by the Narendra Modi government to review the major laws relating to environment protection has, in its recommendations, worked towards two sets of objectives: one, to separate business from the messiness of governance, and, two, to redraw the line of demarcation between the judiciary and the executive. Manju Menon (manjumenon@namati.org) and Kanchi Kohli (kanchikohli@namati.org) are with the Centre for Policy Research - Namati...

-The Times of India PATNA: Even as Bihar is endowed with substantial groundwater resources, a vast section of its population has no easy access to potable water. The government claims to have sunk more than 10 lakh shallow and 2000 deep tubewells in different parts of the state, but they fail to cope up with the ever-increasing demand of the people for domestic and irrigational needs. Experts feel that assured availability of...