-The Hindu The top 1% of earners captured less than 21% of total income in the late 1930s, before dropping to 6% in the early 1980s and rising to 22% today, says renowned economist Lucas Chancel According to a research paper by renowned economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel, income inequality in India is at its highest level since 1922, the year the Income Tax Act was passed. In December, they will...

-The Times of India Punjab, the leader of green revolution during the '70s, has become disreputable for farmers' suicides in last two decade or so. Usually, these suicides are attributed to farmers' indebtedness to banks and commission agents. However, it is to be noted that bank credit has played a pivotal role in investment into tubewells, tractors, farm mechanization, horticulture, dairy, poultry and forestry all over India, and especially in Punjab and...

-The Times of India blog Whatever its critics may say, there is one unambiguous achievement of the demonetisation drive. The Reserve Bank of India can surely now claim its rightful place in the Guinness or Limca books for the world record in time spent on a single count of currency notes. But what about the other benefits that the finance ministry claimed after RBI announced the results of this mahayajna of...

-The Indian Express A scrutiny of RBI’s earlier provisional disclosures and the government’s structured public remarks reveal a pattern: aware that much of the money would return, the government and the political establishment kept shifting the goalposts. New Delhi: “Tab (previous UPA) aawaz uthti thi ki kitna gaya, ab aawaz uth rahi hai ki kitna laye. Isse bada jeevan ka santosh kya ho sakta hai…Yahi toh sahi kadam hai…Woh zamana tha tab...

-Down to Earth The farmers have to make an investment of Rs 463 billion in the next five years A “New India” is the latest national agenda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his fourth Independence Day speech, made an appeal with his trademark gesture of both hands pointing towards the gathering: “A new India that would fulfil the dreams of the young and women, and see the income of farmers double.” Doubling...