-PTI Washington: Six out of ten men in India have acted violently against their wives or partners at some point of time, with those facing economic distress more likely to perpetrate violence, says a new study highlighting prevalence of intimate partner abuse released on Monday. The study titled Masculinity, Intimate Partner Violence and Son Preference in India by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Washington-based International Centre for Research on Women...

-The Hindu Terming death penalty a "cruel and barbaric" punishment used mainly against the "marginalised and Poor", hundreds of eminent citizens, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, actor Aamir Khan, sociologist Andre Beteille, economist Jagdish Bhagwati and author Vikram Seth among others, issued a public statement on Sunday opposing the practice. Arguing that more than 70 per cent of the world's countries were abolitionist in law or practice, they said India "clings to...

-The Times of India Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, hereafter BP, have argued for phasing out the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in favour of cash transfers ("Rural Inefficiency Act", ToI, 23 October). It's surprising-and amusing-that two eminent economists have chosen to make a case based on prior beliefs and some sophomoric wordplay ('mis'leading economists), rather than on the available evidence. A survey by one of us of the empirical literature...

-The Times of India BAREILLY: Two government departments have sparked off a war of words after one of them said as per its survey only 1,600 children were out of school in the district, while another department rubbished this saying more than 40,000 had no access to education. As per the survey conducted by the basic education department, officials said that 1,692 children had not been enrolled in schools so far. However, the...

-The Hindu Reports that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government intends to radically restructure the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have re-ignited public discussion on the scheme. Since its launch, debate on MGNREGA has been synonymous with ideological contestations on the role of the state and its welfare functions. Inevitably, the contours of the debate have been shrill, leaving little space for an evidence-based discussion on the...