-TheWeek.in Wilful defaults, loans which are deliberately not repaid by companies despite having the capacity to do so, have surged 152 per cent in the last four years of Modi government. A new report prepared by Pinkerton – a risk management consultancy along with PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry – says that both gross NPAs and wilful defaults have been going up post 2008 financial crisis. The value of wilful defaults...

-Livemint.com Corporate job growth has recovered over the past couple of years but the pace of job creation remains lacklustre The promise of creating new jobs helped Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win a historic victory in the 2014 general elections. With a year left for the next general elections, Modi and his government find themselves under fire from opponents for what they perceive to be a failure to...

-The Hindu What Dhrubajyoti Ghosh closely observed and learnt from Kolkata’s wetland communities If ever there was someone who lived true to his name, it was Dhrubajyoti Ghosh. In Sanskrit, “Dhrubajyoti” refers to the light (jyoti) emitted by the pole star (dhruva tara). The ecologist, who passed away in February, was unwavering in his commitment to the cause he lived for and fearlessly defended: saving the ecologically critical East Kolkata Wetlands from...

-The Hindu Business Line ‘Increased participation of women in economic activity can boost economy’ New Delhi: When the theme for 2017 International Women’s Day was set as ‘Be Bold for Change’, little did anyone imagine that later that year Hollywood actress Ashley Judd would come out and speak up against film production and distribution house Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein who had sexually harassed her in the early years of her career. Judd proved...

-Frontline.in Despite its deeply flawed neoliberal perspective, Economic Survey 2017-18 is rich in detail, has many useful analytical discussions at different levels of aggregation, and would serve as a useful resource for students and scholars. When Arvind Subramanian, the present Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance who took office way back in October 2014, presented his first Economic Survey, the one for 2014-15, there was considerable novelty on offer, at...