-The Indian Express The inequality in India’s education system gets a shot at redemption in the country’s public universities, which give students from different backgrounds a window to a more democratic future. As proposals of fee hike meet with protests, a look at how access to subsidised higher education has fuelled dreams and opened up opportunities for the disadvantaged Till three years ago, it was life as usual for Suraj Tiwari....

-The Hindu Business Line A low turnout at the famous Puskhar fair highlights the declining interest in the once-popular profession of camel herding The Pushkar Fair, held annually in Rajasthan’s Ajmer, is known as one of the world’s largest cattle fairs. It also celebrates the age-old traditions of the pastoralist camel-herding Raika tribe. On November 4-12, more than 1,000 of the community’s camel herders arrived with their livestock at the fair. They...

-The Indian Express All crop loans should be routed through Kisan Credit Cards. This will ensure that farmers do not use the loans for non-agricultural purposes. Normally, a sector’s credit off-take is a sign of its health. Higher the off-take, the better the sector’s performance. There has been a healthy off-take of ground-level credit (GLC) in agriculture and allied sectors. In the financial year (FY) 2018-19, banks disbursed Rs 12.55 trillion...

-Livemint.com * At a time when rural incomes are sliding, the only existing safety net for the farmer is failing * High costs of reinsurance due to erratic weather, a spike in claims, political interference in crop loss estimation are reasons that forced some insurers to leave the business NEW DELHI: Santosh Kumar’s first brush with insurance left a bitter aftertaste. A farmer’s son, 26-year-old Kumar from Bihar’s Araria district felt betrayed when...

-Livemint.com A leaked NSO survey report says that expenditure by consumers across India actually fell over a six-year span till 2017-18. This is at odds with our GDP data. So what explains this finding? Is Indian consumption in decline? Anecdotal evidence has pointed that way for some time. But now, a leaked survey report of the National Statistical Office (NSO), published on Friday in Business Standard, seems to confirm suspicions of such...