The overall contribution of agriculture to GDP growth this year will be below 1 percent as per the latest estimates. This is worrying for various reasons, most importantly for what it means for the livelihoods and incomes of rural families.

The Niti Aayog estimates using a multi-dimensional approach, that poverty has fallen below 15 percent. Why then are 58 percent of Indians getting free food? Or even if their food security needs have to be addressed, would this be better served by direct benefit transfers?

Not much has been done by lawmakers to reduce black money in elections. ONOE is not likely to make a dent to that effect, though that is its ostensible purpose.

The webs we weave in agricultural policy have entangled us from which unshackling has become very difficult. India needs massive reforms to make markets function better, much less intrusion of the State and more freedom for the farmer to participate in the market process and profit from it.

This is surely not the first or the last of the fake encounters (extra-judicial killing) in our country. Are people, including the police, losing faith in constitutional methods so earnestly championed by Dr. Ambedkar? What would he have said, had he been alive today?

No doubt that the Adani Group will do its utmost to bounce back, but regulators and policymakers must ensure that investors’ trust in the markets is not dented. India’s stock markets are world leaders in terms of technology and surveillance systems. The regulators and exchanges must match that in terms of excellent governance and strengthening…

The present delay in conducting the national census, when even some of our South Asian neighbours have conducted theirs, despite covid difficulties, is cause for concern.

Another important aspect of the Constitution is the protection of minorities. There are abundant safeguards to protect minorities against the arbitrary use of power by the majority. As Dr. Ambedkar said, "The majority has a duty toward minorities, as the latter have chosen to be under majority rule".

Interestingly CCI’s ruling was not the result of or in response to any complaint by a user, vendor, advertiser or customer. It came out of a summer project done by three student interns, who studied the EU case and its applicability to Indian conditions

An increase in support of free food means cutting back on maybe health, education, infrastructure, military or pension benefits. The government cannot escape these difficult fiscal tradeoffs.