Just before Dhanteras and Diwali this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the November edition of its monthly bulletin. The latest RBI Monthly Bulletin says that the GDP has contracted by -8.6 percent in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020-21 (i.e. July-September, 2020) as compared to the gross domestic product (GDP) during the corresponding period last year. It may be noted that India’s GDP shrunk by -23.9...

-The Indian Express A collective of NREGA women activists discovers its political voice. As Jean Dreze recently observed, one of the key ideas behind NREGA was that it would serve as a platform for increasing the overall political capacities of workers. It was hoped that people would organise themselves to collectively demand work and, in the process, learn about other legal and constitutional provisions. While learning about the latter has been patchy,...

-Down to Earth As the new ordinance seeks curtailment of judicial intervention, the executive faces the real challenge of pushing difficult and inconvenient solutions to clean air President Ramnath Kovind has signed a new ordinance to form a commission for air-quality management in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas. This move, in one sweep, erases all other committees and authorities that were set up under judicial and administrative orders, seeks to...

-Livemint.com * States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, and Tripura, who have reported more than 30 percentage points in the proportion of children whose families own a smartphone include * There is limited evidence on the extent to which this content is reaching children and the impact it is having on their learning NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding the huge push, only one third of India’s school children are pursuing online education and a smaller cohort...

-TheWire.in A report by a Kathmandu-based organisation says that across South Asia, governments treat internal migrants as "human entities meant for profiteering by others". New Delhi: While India has brought in a legal provision under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to fast-track the applications of non-Muslim refugees from three neighbouring countries, a recent report has called internal migrants in the country as “stateless without losing the state’s legal recognition”. The report, published by...