While the government has made it clear it has no intention of re-visiting the debate over creamy layers in OBC reservations, it is making a huge mistake since it is incomes and not caste that are the major determinants of levels of education. Not just for OBCs or SC/STs, but even for upper caste Hindus. And this is something that is revealed by most surveys, whether it is the National Sample Survey of 1999-2000 or the Reproductive and Child Health Survey (RCHS), which was conducted over two years from 2002 to 2004 over 600,000 households across the country—the RCHS, in fact, has a sample size that is several times larger than the NSS. (more…)

From New Delhi’s Saket to Orissa’s Sambalpur: Urban India is building 70-80 m sq ft of mall space. (more…)

Economic reforms will certainly rank as among the most widely used—often misused and abused—expression in India today. Ever since Manmohan Singh ushered in his new economic policy in 1991 as finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government, most substantive economic debates in this country have centred round this expression. And yet, reforms continue to mean different things to different people in different times. Politicians have freely used this word to suit their requirements, depending on the circumstances they have faced from time to time.

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