-Economic and Political Weekly India plays a poor hand at the World Trade Organization's negotiations. The idea that there is no longer a sharp divide between the global North and the global South has been disproved in ample measure by the decisions taken last month in Nairobi at the 10th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The essence of the final communique is that the 14-year-old Doha “Development” Agenda (DDA)...

-Economic and Political Weekly Bihar has been showing signs of emerging from stagnation and backwardness. For this to occur in full, an agrarian transformation is central in a state where urbanisation remains very low. This paper uses longitudinal household data from a SAMple of villages to explore changes in production relations, land and other assets, agricultural development and occupational diversification. There has been a significant change in class structure and a...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India's horticulture output has outpaced the production of foodgrains third year in a row in 2014-15 despite deficit monsoon, unseasonal rains and hailstorms. Besides, horticulture production also showed continuous increase unlike foodgrain output which reported a decline in 2014-15 as compared to 2013-14. The figures are part of the horticultural statistics, released by the agriculture ministry on Thursday. The report - Horticultural Statistics at a Glance...

-Business Standard Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian discusses the Budget, goods and services tax, Centre-state relationship and larger issues facing the economy with Dilasha Seth, Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana. Edited excerpts: * In the mid-year economic analysis, you talked of revisiting the fiscal numbers for 2016-17. Is it a view of the chief economic advisor (CEA) or that of the government? I see my role as a member of the government. I...

-The Hindu What matters more for development: location or community? New official data show that while some communities do better than others in sex ratio and literacy, State-level differences can be as important. Newly released data from the Census shows that on average nationwide, Christians, followed by Muslims, continue to have the most gender-equal child sex ratios of 958 girls for every 1,000 boys and 943 respectively. Buddhists follow, with Hindus, Jains...