2019

by Atanu Sengupta and Sanjoy De
Introduction
The conferment of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer is an accolade to the randomised control trial (RCT)1 method used by these economists to understand and alleviate global poverty. The Prize Committee noted that

by Suranjita Ray
It is pertinent to acknowledge that poverty is one of the biggest hindrances to human development and a challenge to the policy- makers. Since any universal or objective interpretation of poverty undermines its essential characteristics, a comprehensive understanding makes it significant to move beyond its narrow meaning to comprehend the everyday experiences. Therefore, despite the differences on the method/approach/pedagogical device to understand poverty, the general (…)

Now that all party leaders are
Safely locked up,
We will yet show the carping world
How to hold free and fair elections.
Note that the electors are tucked away
Too in hotels where no one may
Approach them for anti-people
Discussions.
We will blow the myth that elections
Require candidates or electors,
Or, god forbid, electioneering.
We will prove that free and fair elections
Need only security forces
And dutiful election commissions.
Let the trouble-shooters beat (…)

by Pratip Chattopadhyay
Introduction
The verdict of the 17th Lok Sabha elections in 2019 came as a political shock for the Left political parties as in a 545-seat-based Lok Sabha, the Left parties have secured only five seats and that too only one from Kerala, none from West Bengal and Tripura and four from Tamil Nadu. In the backlash in terms of percentage of votes and seats secured in three federal units known as the

In his discourse on promises of the Indian Constitution, Rohit De argued that

EDITORIAL
Is it the final nail in the coffin of secular India? In the campaign for the State Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana (which are to take place on October 21) PM Narendra Modi has vigorously advocated that Veer Savarkar should get the country’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.
Who was Veer Savarkar, after all? No doubt he was incarcerated in the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands in the 1900s by the British. One recalls that in one’s childhood one was (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Now it is no more a hidden secret. So far they have been evading a direct confession. But on October 2, the birthday of Gandhi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat publically confessed that India is a Hindu Rashtra, that it is a fact of life and it cannot be altered even if everything else changes.
So far India is identified as a secular country and even the Constitution of the country mentions this fact in its Preamble. Ever since India was declared an independent country, no (…)

by Mustafa Khan
It is time to own our own terror rather than hide it from the world. That is more important as we in India quote “truth lives”. We boast about bidding farewell to open defecating after five years of effort. The day after the Houston jamboree, two Dalit children were lynched for attending nature’s call in the open field. What better way to assessing what the PM claimed in UNGA than by looking back. “We believe this is one of the biggest challenges not for any single country (…)

by Monaem Sarker
This summer’s fears about escalating trade tensions and war, slowing global growth and an inverted yield curve in the United States have been let up somewhat as the year has progressed. The economic mood swings have become commonplace, however, with the trade standoff with China intensifying or de-escalating with the speed of a tweet or offhand comment.
Despite this turbulence, the US economy has shown great resilience. Growth has slowed but remained strong enough to (…)

by Nishtha Chadha
Abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A has led to the emergence of new fault-lines in Jammu and Kashmir. The August 5, 2019 decision of the incumbent BJP Government at the Centre has set the new normal in the politics of J&K in particular and in India in general. The dilution of the special status of the State has led to simmering tensions that question the established ecosystem of the status quo politics and the overground and underground political and separatist (…)