An opportunity to abolish disqualification due to ‘office of profit’; India’s reverse auction for coal has done little for consumers; and more

[View this email in your browser]( Top Story [No Prime Minister, Earning Rs 200 a Day By Selling Pakodas is Not Employment]( Gurdeep Sappal [While earning something as meagre as Rs 200 a day may come as some solace to an unemployed person and she or he may clutch at it as the proverbial straw, the government must acknowledge that it only reflects under-employment and these earnings are just not enough to live life with dignity. In fact, under-employment was underlined as major concern by the Niti Aayog in its three-year action plan released in August 2017. It noted that “not unemployment, but severe under-employment is the main problem facing the country” and that “what is needed is the creation of high-productivity, high-wage jobs”. It is highly incongruous that something which is of highest concern for the Niti Aayog is projected as a big achievement by the prime minister. After all, the prime minister himself heads Niti Aayog.]( [Srinivasa Ramanujan the Infinite]( Aswin Sekhar [It is almost as if every number was his close friend because he was able to demonstrate an intimate knowledge of how each one of them would behave, change and work at any time.]( [Grab This Opportunity To Abolish Disqualification Due to ‘Office of Profit’]( Faizan Mustafa [It is time to either expand the definition to include ‘power and influence’ for which such offices are really created, or remove the provision as it has failed to achieve the desired goal of legislative independence.]( [BJP at Zenith and CPI(M) at Nadir Yet Comrades Reject Congress Tie-Up]( Monobina Gupta [Both Yechury and Karat agreed that defeating the BJP was the party’s primary political objective. The differences centred around how to achieve that objective – and at the heart of that dispute is the CPI-M’s relationship with the Congress.]( [India’s Reverse Auction for Coal Has Done Little for Consumers, a Lot for Private Power Players]( Noor Mohammad [While private power companies may have walked away with savings of more than Rs 50,000 crore in the last September auction, they offered only token tariff concessions ranging from 1 to 4 paise per unit.]( [Assuring Higher Farmer Income: Centre Passing the Buck to States Yet Again]( Kavitha Kuruganti [The proposed Market Assurance Scheme should not leave states to fend for themselves when it comes to price support for farmers, especially as the agrarian crisis is one that is caused mainly by central policies.]( [Purity, Pollution and the Drive to Turn IIT Bombay into a Modern Agraharam]( Anand Teltumbde [The recent diktat on separate plates for non-vegetarian students should be seen as a subtle move to revive the caste system in its essential features.]( [It’s In No One’s Interest to See Southeast Asia Become a Ground for Proxy Tensions: Indonesian Envoy]( Devirupa Mitra [In an interview ahead of the India-ASEAN Commemorative summit, Indonesian envoy Suryodipuro talks about ASEAN unity and the role of outside powers in the region.]( [Who’s Blaming Whom: US Government Shutdown Over Immigration Reform]( Seema Sirohi [Though Democrats and Republicans are at each other’s throats, both sides see this time as important in framing the upcoming elections for the House of Representatives.]( [Cherchez La Femme: The Women of France Are Not What Catherine Deneuve Imagines They Are]( Ingrid Therwath [Harassment of women and worse are as rampant in France as in many other countries, despite romantic notions of the ideal French woman.]( Copyright © 2018 The Wire, All rights reserved. You're getting this email because you recently subscribed to receive email digests from The Wire via our website. Our mailing address is: The Wire 13, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg Gole MarketNew Delhi 110001 India [Add us to your address book](//thewire.us11.list-manage.com/vcard?u=6b988b13445248b1268a308f2&id=4808224841) Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](