Opinion News Updates

By Charu Bahri Between 2010 and 2015, funding shortfalls to local governments nationwide – rural and urban – were as high as half the sanctioned amount and annual payments fluctuated extensively, with variations peaking in the slowdown years 2011 and 2012, according to a new paper. Central government grants are a financial lifeline for panchayati […]

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s media conference at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, after India beat Pakistan for the 11th time in the ICC tournaments, appeared more like he was addressing his own team-mates. Like a teacher telling his students which classmate of theirs they should emulate, pointing to the most scholarly in the class, India captain sang […]

Few people will have any objections to chanting “Bharat Mata ki Jai (Glory to Mother India)”, but are unlikely to accept the idea of being compelled to say it. They may still do so out of fear, but that can hardly be the kind of patriotism which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat […]

The Indian economy, with its evolution and transformation over the past 25 years, has been a topic of discussion among policymakers and other key stakeholders in India and abroad. A more interesting perspective is in understanding the future trajectory of Indian growth. A recent book by D. Bhalla, the present secretary general of the Lok […]

By Swara Bhaskar I skulked home one afternoon from school in a particularly muggy hot Delhi summer month and spent the day cursing fate that I was born a girl. I was 14 years old, in class ninth and had just discovered that my period, the first two awful days (!), were going to coincide […]

By Vinod Behl Much on expected lines, though this year’s budget does not unveil any big bang measures to give a giant push to the beleaguered real estate. Yet, it aims to revitalise the economy, triggering investments through a series of reform measures. It also seeks to spur infrastructure and boost affordable housing, to provide […]

By Prachi Salve and Saumya Tewari With a 14-percent rise in funding for the programme run under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the 2016-17 Budget, the world’s largest state-run jobs plan, after a decade of operation, continues to be India’s top poverty alleviation programme. MGNREGA, which guarantees 100 days of […]

New Delhi: As Indian society grapples with the issue of intolerance and violence, genetic experts are opening up the hoary discussion on whether genetic makeup can predispose people towards anti-social behaviour. We are back to the debate on nature versus nurture. The answer may not be easy to find, but some experts say that the […]

With a 14-percent rise in funding for the programme run under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the 2016-17 Budget, the worldÂ’s largest state-run jobs plan, after a decade of operation, continues to be IndiaÂ’s top poverty alleviation programme.

By Veturi Srivatsa Mahendra Singh Dhoni, from time to time, sends across messages to national selectors, his own teammates and to fans through a prying media. Ever since he quit Test cricket, the one question he is frequently confronted is when will he be quitting the other two formats. After the World Cup, he was […]

Just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi described MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) as a living monument to the Congress’s decades-old neglect of rural distress, the quota system is the fallout of, first, a similar prolonged failure in the fields of employment and education and, secondly, of political chicanery. Haryana is bearing the […]

New Delhi: CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury on Thursday accused the BJP-led NDA government of attempting to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and demanded that a house committee probe the issues arising out of the unrest in JNU, Hyderabad University and other institutions. The government’s undue “interference which is not sanctioned by the law” in […]

Last month, the major agenda item at the World Economic Forum in Davos was the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR). Since FIR is already under way in some of the advanced economies there are fears that it will be very disruptive and create huge unemployment. The Davos meeting was meant to discuss and allay these fears. […]

By Amitava Mukherjee A dangerous situation may arise in the country if Mamata Banerjee’s demand for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi immigrants living in India for more than five years is conceded. The West Bengal chief minister has called for restoration of the district magistrates’ former rights to grant citizenship which, in effect, may facilitate further […]

By Vinod Behl With a focus on strengthening the economy, improving the investment climate with more public spending, boosting infrastructure and spurring demand and growth, the government may have little fiscal room in the national budget for the next fiscal for measures that specifically help the realty sector. But what will still hold the key […]