India's elephant census; Modi's words on Kashmir; a book banned in Jharkhand; and more

[View this email in your browser]( Top Story [Fact Check: Demonetisation’s Effect on Increase in Direct Taxes and Income Tax Base]( James Wilson [The hard data from the CAG, CBDT and MoF proves that there has been no substantial increase in the number of new tax payers or direct tax collection due to demonetisation. The CBDT with its selective press release, helped the government to manage headlines. As usual, our mainstream media became mere stenographers and amplifiers that carried the news with thick headlines without checking the facts.]( [‘2019 Is an Open Field’: BJD’s Tathagata Satpathy]( M.K. Venu [Satpathy says he does not buy that there is no alternative to Modi in the next general elections and is confident of the re-emergence of the regional parties.]( [Elephant Census Recalls Gaps in Addressing Conflicts with Humans]( Nidhi Jamwal [Villagers are often the first line of defence against elephants wandering into farmland and settlements, so community-led efforts with traditional methods have come to the fore.]( [More Than Modi’s Embrace Through Words, Political Will Is Needed to Resolve Kashmir Issue]( Majid Maqbool [Modi’s remarks of seeking a peaceful resolution to the issues plaguing the Valley have been welcome by several leaders, but many worry his words are simply symbolic without any concrete action on the ground.]( [Parliamentary Panel Report on Surrogacy Bill Is a Good Step, but Definitely Isn’t Perfect]( Sarojini Nadimpally, Deepa Venkatachalam and Aswathy Raveendran [While the committee’s recommendations do improve on the draft Bill, there are no details on regulating IVF clinics and the surrogate’s autonomy is not respected at all points.]( [An Indian Drug Discovery Success Story – and Why It Might Not Happen Again]( Amit Misra [The price of the antimalarial drug α/β arteether fell because it was discovered and developed through publicly funded research – something to keep in mind when funding for labs is cut.]( [As His Administration Spirals into Crisis, Trump Beats War Drums Abroad, Plays Race Card at Home]( Inderjeet Parmar [Amidst the doom and gloom of Trumpism, Americans are discovering the politics of mass mobilisation to wage the battles thrust upon them.]( [In Jharkhand’s Ban of Book on Adivasis, an Attempt to Deter Tribals From Dictating Their Future]( Kumar Rana [While the state government lost no time in banning a book on the grounds that it portrayed the Santhal women in a bad light, it has done little to solve the issues of unemployment and widespread hunger plaguing the community.]( [Why India’s Poor Must Have a Right to Privacy]( Agnidipto Tarafdar and Arindrajit Basu [Regardless of the Supreme Court’s final verdict, the false dichotomy between privacy and welfare must be expunged.]( [The Human Cost of the Obsession with a ‘Swachh Bharat’]( Sachin Rao [The Swachh Bharat Mission’s unthinking obsession with ‘behavioural change’ is taking an unconscionable toll on the poorest.]( Copyright © 2017 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]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](