-The Hindu Business Line Direct bank transfers plug leakages in food distribution, ensure better nutritional security New Delhi: Irrespective of teething problems encountered in places where it was launched as pilot, direct cash transfers are far more effective than food subsidy in reducing food insecurity and nutritional imbalances among the Indian population, a new report has shown. Currently, India spends ?1,45,400 crore — about 1.3 per cent of its GDP — to give...

-Livemint.com World Bank has reduced its India GDP growth forecast to 7% for 2017-18 from 7.2%, blaming disruptions caused by demonetisation and GST New Delhi: After remaining the world’s fastest-growing region for eight consecutive quarters, South Asia has slipped to the third position behind East Asia and the Pacific regions, as India’s economy slowed to its lowest level in 13 quarters, the World Bank said on Monday. This is at a time when...

-Outlook Indians’ confidence in their government was higher in 2007, fell to 55 percent in 2012. It stands at 73 percent now. Numbers, facts and a bit of laziness can change perception. Mainstream media reported this morning that ‘India tops global index of countries with the most confidence in their government’, which is incorrect. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Government at a Glance report mentions that “73 per cent Indians...

-Economic and Political Weekly A categorical distinction is facing rough weather--that between urban and rural. If we take just agriculture, there is so much of the outside world that comes in not just as external markets but as external inputs. Further, many of our villages barely qualify as rural if we were to take occupation alone. So the earlier line that separated the farmer from the worker in towns is slowly...

-Economic and Political weekly Drawing on the research on basic education in West Bengal, this essay argues the case for a much criticised public education system, which needs to be reconsidered as regards its potential as a provider of quality education, even while addressing its many failings. The essay follows an approach, both critical and constructive, that underlines the collective onus of the public in realising the value of the public...