-The Hindu “Technical flaws” may have caused exclusion of Bengali Hindu refugees, says State Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. New Delhi: The Assam government and the ruling BJP in the State have termed the finalisation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list there as a “mixed bag” with concerns being raised over several “technical flaws” in the process that may have caused exclusion of Bengali Hindu refugees who had crossed over...

-The Indian Express From economic issues to demonetisation or agrarian distress, Manmohan Singh has now become one of the strongest voices of the Opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rarely made public interventions in the last few years since the BJP came to power but whenever he has spoken, it has weighed heavily for the saffron party to ignore or paper over. From...

-The Telegraph "The government has miserably failed to stimulate the domestic economy. It has spent less and less on public education, healthcare and infrastructure because of its erroneous policy" The Modi government has an ambitious plan to create a $5-trillion economy in the next five years — but all data points are heavily stacked against it. The economy is floundering and the Reserve Bank of India has already trimmed its growth forecast...

-The Times of India blog The Prime Minister expressed concern about ‘population explosion’ in his Independence Day speech, and referred to those with small families as patriotic, ‘responsible citizens’. Last month, BJP MP Rakesh Sinha introduced the Population Regulation Bill, 2019, in the Rajya Sabha. He later claimed that his Bill was not aimed at any religion, caste or community. Regardless, the Shiv Sena targeted a section of the Muslims for...

In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...