-Livemint.com New government data show India saw fewer cases of farmers taking their lives in 2018 than the year before. But this doesn’t mean rural distress is down. Much needs to be done It is tempting to relate the decline in the number of farmer suicides in 2018, as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), to an abatement in rural distress. Such a temptation should, however, be tempered. There have...

-The Indian Express The exercise — Houselisting Operations of Census 2021 — will also seek data, for the first time, on smartphones, piped gas connections and mobile numbers. Amid fears expressed by the Opposition and states such as West Bengal and Kerala over the National Population Register (NPR), the government Thursday notified another pre-Census exercise that will seek new information on household consumption, INCluding the use of cereals. The exercise — Houselisting Operations...

-The Hindu While opening up the coal mining sector, the govt. must protect the interests of Coal India The Centre’s decision to liberalise norms for entry into coal mining and relax regulations on mining and selling coal in the country is significant in many respects. Amendments to two legacy Acts through the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday will free the sector from restrictions that were inhibiting...

-The Hindu Misplaced optimism needs to cede ground to tangible policy interventions The government’s advance estimates for economic output and growth for the fiscal year ending in March may raise eyebrows, but only for the wrong reasons. The National Statistical Office (NSO) has estimated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will expand by 5% in the 12-month period, in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s sharp downward revision last month in its...

-Hindustan Times To be sure, this does not reflect on whether or not illegal immigration into India -- a controversial subject right now -- has INCreased or decreased. Cases filed under laws governing people living in India illegally have been declining even as those pertaining to unlawful exits from the country have been on the rise, according to data for 2018 released by the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) on Wednesday. To be sure,...