-The Telegraph They also torched the office of a weigh bridge and damaged it, pelted stones and blocked roads, demanding that all should get adequate bonds to store their produce Jalpaiguri: Violence sparked in three locations on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town, on Thursday as hundreds of potato farmers, who crowded in front of cold storages to collect bonds to store their produce, resorted to protests after alleging anomalies in the distribution...

-Business Standard Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, writes T N Ninan Crises in the Indian economy used to be the “normal”. In the 12 years from 1962 to 1974, India fought three wars, suffered four droughts that produced famine in places like Bihar, and lived through the FIRst oil shock, which saw a quadrupling of crude oil prices. The...

In the absence of income or expenditure-based headcount ratio, the growth in the real wages (i.e., nominal wages adjusted against retail inflation) of the manual workers is considered to be a good proxy to assess the trends in poverty. This is because the manual, unskilled/ semi-skilled labourers exist at the bottom of the pyramid or economic hierarchy, and most of them belong to the social categories Scheduled Castes (SCs) and...

-The Hindu Countering the idea of Hindu nationalism will require much more than smart electioneering or tactical plays  State elections should never be confused with sporting nomenclature of ‘semi-final’, but in all significant State elections, it is imperative that we draw clear lessons. What must leave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chuffed is that the elections from disparate States around India have resulted in its bettering its performance — and by a...

-The Telegraph The government had on Tuesday assured the apex court that it would amend an Act, which the Opposition and critics have often assailed as disproportionately harsh Patna: At least five persons lost their lives after allegedly consuming hooch in Siwan and West Champaran districts of Bihar over the past 24 hours, at a time the state government is gearing up to ease prohibition penal provisions after being chided by the...