Nobel Economist Calls for Ending Obsession With GDP
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Nobel Economist Calls for Ending Obsession With GDP

Jon Queally   Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is warning the world that unless the obsession many world leaders have with gross national product (GDP) comes to end, there will be little chance of adequately fighting back against the triple-threat of climate destruction, the scourge of financial inequality, and the crises of democracy now…

Jharkhand: Where Is the Mineral Wealth Going?
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Jharkhand: Where Is the Mineral Wealth Going?

Subodh Varma   According to various estimates, Jharkhand has 40% of the country’s mineral resources. It has 27.3 per cent of India’s coal reserves, 26 per cent of iron ore, 18.5 per cent copper ore, besides having deposits of uranium, mica, bauxite, granite, limestone, silver, graphite, magnetite and dolomite. It also has large quantities of…

Pathetic State of Economy: Modi Govt Hides Data
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Pathetic State of Economy: Modi Govt Hides Data

Prabhat Patnaik   The National Statistical Office (NSO) has decided not to release the quinquennial survey data on consumer expenditure for 2017–18. This is because these data, leaked by The Business Standard (November 15) show a drop of 3.7 per cent in real per capita consumer expenditure between 2011–12 and 2017–18, from Rs 1,501 per…

Finance Ministry Rejected RBI’s Dissent on Electoral Bonds 
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Finance Ministry Rejected RBI’s Dissent on Electoral Bonds 

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar   The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) repeated warnings on the electoral bond scheme in bearer form having the potential to increase black money circulation, money laundering, cross-border counterfeiting and forgery were ignored by the Centre as it was more keen on protecting the identity of donors, the Ministry of Finance’s responses…

How Far Have We Deviated From the Ideology of Our Constitution?
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How Far Have We Deviated From the Ideology of Our Constitution?

S.V. Narayanan   Constitution day on November 26, similar to other days of national importance, has become another day of ritualistic celebration without much critical introspection.    The significance of constitution day is not in the explicit ritualistic reverence to the supreme legal document, but in critical introspection of our progress in fulfilling the basic…

What Policies Can India’s Corporates Buy With Half a Billion Dollars?
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What Policies Can India’s Corporates Buy With Half a Billion Dollars?

Raghu Karnad   Between the years 2005 and 2018, the world’s five largest tech firms—Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft—grew to dominate global business and media, and firmed their grip on global markets and on lawmakers. According to Forbes, the ‘Big Five’ collectively “spent half a billion dollars lobbying [the US] Congress” over those 13…

Amit Shah’s NRC Plan Decoded
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Amit Shah’s NRC Plan Decoded

Siddharth Varadarajan   In speech after speech, Union home minister Amit Shah and other Sangh Parivar leaders like Mohan Bhagwat have been insisting that no Hindu will ever be deported from India when their plan to create a National Register of Citizens (NRC) is enforced across the country.    At a political rally in Kolkata…

India’s Shadow Lobbies: How Business Captured the Government
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India’s Shadow Lobbies: How Business Captured the Government

Divya Guha   It has come to light that according to its profit and loss statement for the quarter ended March 2019, Tata Consultancy Services donated Rs 220 crore to an unnamed beneficiary.   This makes the infotech consultant the single largest political donor.   TCS has outdone Prudent Electoral Trust, which supplied a total…