Draft amendments to the Indian Forest Act have been circulated for comment, and provoked much controversy. The ministry of environment proposes enhanced powers for the police and bureaucrats in dealing with forest tribals to improve forest cover. In 2015, the […]
Take a leaf from Gujarat, and let tribals own and operate forests Read More »
The Prime Minister held a meeting with other party leaders last Wednesday to promote his longstanding idea of simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Many Opposition leaders are bitterly opposed to this and boycotted the meeting. They
‘One nation, two elections’ can be a good compromise solution for Modi Read More »
There are technical weaknesses in Subramanian’s claim of 4.5% growth Last week, former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian claimed in an Indian Express column (bit.do/ eVn2A), based on his new research paper, that GDP growth in 2011-16 was only 4.5%,
Why the Sky is Not Falling Read More »
Arvind Subramanian, former Chief Economic Advisor, says in a sensational newspaper column that India’s GDP growth rate since 2011 has been only 4.5%, far short of the official 7%. Sorry, this is too bad to be true. Many economists have
Subramanian fails the smell test no less than India’s GDP data Read More »
Why did Congress fare so badly in the General Election? One reason is that it devised catchy slogans that made media headlines but didn’t translate into votes since they were not grounded in reality. The best example is Rahul Gandhi’s
Congress gave slogans, Modi made them real Read More »
Why did rising unemployment not hurt Prime Minister Narendra Modi? The latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report shows that unemployment has risen to a record 6.1% in 2017-18, almost triple the 2.2% in 2011-12. NSSO claims this is partly
Notwithstanding No Naukri Read More »
Annual GDP growth fell from 6.9% in 2017-18 to 6.8% in 2018-19. Worse, GDP in the latest January-March 2019 quarter slowed to just 5.8%. Yet Narendra Modi swept the general election. The BJP’s national vote share rose from 31.3% to
BJP’s rural votes show talk of farm crisis misleading Read More »
Narendra Modi won the 2014 election with the slogan, “minimum government, maximum governance.” In practice, government intervention in the economy often increased and governance often worsened. Having won a landslide, Modi should return to his old slogan and make “minimum
Why Modi needs to return to his old slogan Read More »
Farmers — not activists — prove the case for genetically modified brinjal Haryana has cracked down on genetically modified (GM) brinjal (eggplant). This variety passed field trials back in 2009, but was stalled by alarmist activists, who bludgeoned a timid
Oh, Let Baigan Be Baigan! Read More »
Laugh, your honour, it’s just a joke. Last week, West Bengal Police arrested Priyanka Sharma, a BJP worker, for sharing a meme on the internet that photoshopped the face of chief minister Mamata Banerjee onto the body of a film
It’s time we have Right to Ridicule as basic freedom Read More »
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