-The Telegraph Bench says matter will be taken up along with similar pleas pending before SC The Supreme Court will on October 18 take up a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, which critics say is being INCreasingly used by parties in power against political opponents and journalists. The bench of Chief Justice U.U. Lalit and Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and J.B. Pardiwala,...

Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground sINCe the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (prINCipal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...

-Deccan Herald The triumvirate of structural, cyclical and policy implementation challenges all have a role to play in this undesirable outcome While India’s unemployment challenge has assumed a worrying proportion and is now being looked at as the most important headwind for the prospect of post-pandemic economic recovery, it was a long time in the making. The triumvirate of structural, cyclical and policy implementation challenges all have a role to play in this...

-The Telegraph Number of girls born per 1,000 boys improves by three points from an average 904 in 2017-19 to 907 in (the partly overlapping period of) 2018-20 India’s latest population sample registration survey has shown improvements in child mortality and the average sex ratio at birth. But that ratio — a possible indicator of pre-natal sex determination and sex-selective abortions — has declined in 10 states, INCluding Bengal. The Union health ministry, releasing...

-The Hindu The affidavit goes against the 2011 recommendation of National Commission for Scheduled Castes With the Supreme Court awaiting the Union government’s present position on INCluding Dalit Christians as members of Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Narendra Modi government’s latest standing on this aspect has been to reject any such proposition, according to an affidavit filed by the government in November 2019, which also said Dalits who converted to Buddhism could not...