-The Times of India NEW DELHI: It is well known that quality of life greatly varies amongst different states within India. Some states have greater industrial or agricultural output, higher income levels, better educational and health indicators while others are still struggling with backwardness. But what is much less known is that within states too there are wide and astonishing variations. State level averages often hide huge and unconscionable disparity on...

-The Hindu The report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-appointed Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Business and Low Income Households has been placed on the central bank's website for comments. Considering the voluminous nature of the report and even more pertinently its complex and, detailed treatment of the subject, the deadline for receiving comments, now set at January 24, would, in all probability, need to be extended. The report packs...

-The Hindu Business Line Clientelism - tying benefits to political choices - cannot work because voting preferences cannot be ascertained. Do parties and their local agents link access to government services and benefits from government welfare schemes to how voters vote, or are expected to vote? This political strategy, which social scientists refer to as clientelism, depends on a massive investment in local leaders who collect information on voters' party preferences, vote choices...

-The Hindu     Policies being pursued in India are based on the growth-at-any-cost model. The poor and the enviroment suffer while the corporates and organised sectors reap the benefits The Aam Aadmi Party, having won the trust vote, is now in the saddle in Delhi. By announcing several measures to benefit Delhiites, it had already impacted the political discourse in the nation. The established political parties are trying to follow suit. Why did...

-Frontline The latest NSSO estimates put the number of slums in India at a much lower level than Census 2011. The latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey estimates the number of slums in India at 33,510 with 8.8 million households in them. The study, "Key indicators of urban slums in India", was conducted between July and December 2012. Census 2011's "Housing stock, amenities and assets in slums" puts the number of...