-Press release by National Coalition on the Education Emergency dated 2nd November, 2021 * India’s 250 million children returning to school after 18 months of school closures and devastating learning loss * The NCEE warns that re-opening schools cannot be “return to school” as normal, and lack of a comprehensive approach will deepen the existing education inequality * Education recovery efforts require a multi-year, radically new approach, NCEE says NEW DELHI: The overwhelming majority...

-Down to Earth A Survey in Haryana last year found that 45 per cent of 218 organic farmers got yields for wheat better than the state official average yield  The relative merit of organic farming is recognised. Still, it is usually recommended only for areas of low chemical usage and not for intensively farmed areas such as those where the Green Revolution took place in the 1960s like Punjab, Haryana and western...

-TheWire.in The pink bollworm attack has left deaths by suicide in its wake. The authorities, farmers say, are late in even conducting preliminary Surveys. Mansa (Punjab)/Fatehabad (Haryana): There is silence in the cotton fields of Punjab and Haryana where farmers are uprooting plants after having sprayed multiple rounds of pesticides in vain. The pink bollworm has ravaged cotton crops in the country’s north, mainly in the districts of Bathinda and Mansa in Punjab...

-The Hindu Informal workers continue to bear the brunt of pandemic’s adverse effects, says SBI report Signalling a greater shift towards formalisation of the economy, the share of the large informal sector in overall economic activity dipped sharply in 2020-21 even as informal workers continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic’s adverse effects, the SBI said in a research report. Concluding that the share of the informal economy may have shrunk to...

One is almost certain to hear this from an economist that if something is available at free of cost or at a subsidised rate thanks to government intervention, then people tend to overuse or overconsume such goods/ commodities. So, the best solution is to create a market for such 'almost freely available' or 'highly subsidised' goods or commodities. Once people start paying to use or consume such goods/ commodities, they...