A new Government of India report shows that Gujarat does not figure among the top 10 tourist destinations of India. Led by Maharashtra, other states which are major tourist destinations are Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana (taken as one state) Odisha, Rajasthan, Kerala and Karnataka, in that order.

Dr Tushaar Shah (left) with Gujarat official Sujit Gulati A climate change experiment for promoting alternative sources of energy in Anand district, begun about two-and-a-half years ago by a  world-renowned institute , meant for promoting groundwater solar pumps as a means for turning ordinary farmers into electricity producers, appears to have no takers in the Gujarat government.

Calculating urbanization? Annual passenger flow since 2011-12 One of India’s topmost urban experts, Prof Amitabh Kundu, has taken strong exception to the Government of India’s mid-term Economic Survey, released in early August, especially its suggestion that 63% of India could be urban. Prof Kundu believes, this kind of statement would “add confusion” among policy makers and researchers of urbanization.

  Efforts may have been stepped up across India to boycott Chinese goods against the backdrop of the current standoff with the giant neighbour – with Mumbai’s association of school principals  calling  for a boycott of Chinese goods, and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch  listing out  several reasons for the need for boycott, one of them being China “trying” to impose its hegemony over India.

  Seeking to give a controversial answer to the tangled question being debated especially by India's urban development experts as to how urbanized India is, the Government of India's midterm Economic Survey, released last week, has questioned the Census of India data that just 31.2% of the country is urbanized.

The tractor carrying the National Flag Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani has declined to accept the largest-ever National Flag, prepared by Dalit students and teachers of the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), the Dalit empowerment centre, founded by top rights activist Martin Macwan in 1999 to train girls and boys from marginalized communities in technical skills.

Extent of unaccounted compensation in sample districts A new study led by a senior expert of the Azim Premji University, Rajendran Narayanan, has said that in whopping 57% of cases, the Government of India has not been calculating compensation it should be paying for the delay in the payment of wages, as required under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), 2005.

  Did Niti Ayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, a renowned economist and a close follower of free market wizard Jagdish Bhagwati,  resign  from his powerful post because he was unhappy with the Narendra Modi government’s “slow” movement towards privatization, his favourite thrust? It would seem so, if what he said two days earlier (July 31) is any indication.