-The Times of India Thanks to online courses and the initiatives of a few individuals, youngsters from underprivileged backgrounds are learning to crack the code. In 2014, Akash Nautiyal was robbed - he lost everything money, laptop, books, clothes, and since he didn't have cash to get to the call centre he worked at, he lost his job. His landlord evicted him, and Nautiyal, then 17, took up a job as a...

-The Hindu We need to rethink social safety nets in India’s growing economy so that they can also focus on the accidents of life rather than solely on the accidents of birth. Sometimes the grand narratives of the Left and the Right do not seem to have any relationship with the lived experiences of ordinary Indians. For the past two decades, the Left has tried to expand social welfare programmes for the...

-The Hindu Business Line The Government has several short and long-term strategies to achieve self-sufficiency Who can deny that pulses are at the core of the average Indian diet? Therefore, the NDA government’s multi-pronged short-term and long-term strategies to meet the growing consumption of pulses in the country — from importing to increasing production through new technologies, and making cultivation attractive to farmers — is to be welcomed. In fact, pulses play...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned thrice in the pre-lunch session on Thursday amid an uproar as the opposition targeted the government, alleging people were being denied essential benefits, including subsidised LPG and pensions, for not having Aadhaar card. MPs from SP, TMC and BJD had given a notice for discussion on the issue and demanded it be taken up when the House assembled in the...

-Livemint.com Tiliya, one of many villages in Bundelkhand region, has been emptied of its young people as they have migrated to the cities to find work, usually menial jobs Jhansi/ New Delhi: Adjacent to the Pahuj river, surrounded by small rocky hills in Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh lies Tiliya, a village of 42 households. Most villagers are farmers but, strangely, almost all the farmers are elderly. They put it down to ‘Palaayaan’...