-The Hindu Patiala (Punjab): It is an illegal but accepted practice here to employ agricultural labourers and their family against a loan The blaring gurdwara loudspeakers at Punjab’s Gandav village confirmed the worst fears of Jasbir Kaur. They were announcing that the recently-widowed young woman would lose the one-room shed she calls home if she was unable to pay back the Rs. 80,000 her husband had borrowed from the village landowner. With...
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Punjab CM's home district got Rs. 40 cr in election year -Pawan Sharma
-The Hindustan Times Underprivileged people of Muktsar district, the home turf of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, received a lion's share for construction of houses in 2011 in the run-up to the assembly elections, it has emerged. Funds to the tune of over Rs. 40 crore were pumped into Muktsar district alone from the social infrastructure fund (SIF) to help economically weaker sections (EWS) construct or repair their houses, while five districts,...
More »A rank shame-Deepak Pental
-The Indian Express After QS and Times Higher education published their rankings of universities across the world, higher education has become the subject of fierce debate in India. The highest ranking institutions from India are the IITs, but even these do not figure in the top 200. The general refrain — why does no Indian university find a place among the top global universities? Unfortunately, given our present policies on higher education...
More »Once, Congress found a hero in Ashok Khemka
-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: It's not for the first time that Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka has kicked up a storm and put the ruling party in a tight spot with his revelations. And it's also not the first time that the 'whistleblower' officer has been 'used' by the political party in Opposition to hit the ruling government hard. If today Haryana Opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) party is going...
More »Looking for indicators of progress beyond GDP-Kirthi V Rao and Vidya Krishnan
-Live Mint The OECD forum is discussing how to make the aspirations of the common man relevant to policymaking New Delhi: In the face of a deepening economic crisis and social resistance to austerity measures, world leaders are considering a collective experiment to include parameters such as well-being and happiness in national and international statistics. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) World Forum on Measuring Well-being for Development Policy Making being...
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