-The Hindu Business Line There has been a spike in income inequality in the post reforms period with wealth concentrated at the top deciles India has somehow nurtured a widely shared impression that it has a well established statistical system with reliable databases compiled through effective methods of data collection through its network of central agencies and periodic nation-wide surveys. However, India is one of the very few countries which does not...

-Scroll.in Even at night, people living in densely-built, low-income urban neighbourhoods get no respite. As India stares at one of the longest heatwaves in three decades – which so far has claimed over 200 lives – experts warn that the scorcher will impact people in poor urban neighbourhoods for weeks after even after it is over. In a study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment in April, researchers mapped and...

-The Hindu Bengaluru: In the arid Budnahatti village just beyond Challakere, the four borewells dug to provide villagers with drinking water have started drying up because of consecutive droughts. “There is barely one inch of water yield from here, not enough for everyone in the village. We have requisitioned authorities to drill three more borewells, but we may have to go more than 1,000 feet deep to get some water,” says Eswarappa,...

-Livemint.com To keep up with the pressure of making headline fiscal deficit numbers look good, the government has increasingly resorted to off-budget financing for revenue as well as capital spending As with every other Union budget in the country, all eyes will focus on the fiscal deficit number that India’s new finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman presents on 5 July in her maiden budget speech. But for many investors and analysts, how that...

-The New Indian Express The draft on Odisha's new farming policy is being worked out through consultation with experts, universities, civil society and farmers’ groups. BHUBANESWAR: With farmers’ issues taking political centre stage and doubling farmers income being the prime agenda, the State Government has initiated steps to bring out an updated and dynamic agricultural policy keeping in tune with the changing conditions of agriculture and agricultural market. A draft policy is being...