-The Hindu Delays in local body polls can be avoided with sterner fixing of accountability It’s been more than two decades since the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments were passed by Parliament, which accorded constitutional status to local administration bodies across India. Yet, the Tamil Nadu government delayed holding rural local body elections, due in 2016, by three years. This unconstitutional delay started when the Madras High Court cancelled the notification put...

-The Indian Express "I assure all the people, specially from the minorities, that NPR is not going to be used for NRC. It’s a rumour,” Amit Shah said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday drew a distinction between the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) saying both were governed by different laws and NPR data would never be used for the NRC exercise. In an interview to...

-The Hindu Uneven inflation and sluggish growth present serious dilemmas for policymakers Policymakers face a tricky dilemma as prices in the economy continue to rise even as economic growth has plummeted to well under 5%. Food inflation, now in double-digits, has caused significant pain. The International Monetary Fund on December 23 called for “urgent” policy measures to reverse the current slowdown that has weighed down global economic growth. The warning is timely...

-The Hindu Getting financial institutions to a healthy state when they can begin to lend confidently is most crucial for faster growth We bid goodbye to 2019 with a sigh of relief. Anything that could go wrong went wrong during this year. Growth rate plummeted. From the level of 8.1% in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, quarterly GDP growth fell to 4.5% in the second quarter of 2019-20, a fall of 3.6...

-The New Indian Express As the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act grow louder all over the country, the relevance of Article 14 is more relevant than ever before. PALAKKAD: Anakara is a small village on the Palakkad –Malappuram border. But it has always been in the limelight since the freedom struggle days due to the presence of the Vadakkath tharavadu which has thrown up freedom fighters like A V Kuttimallu Amma...