Hyderabad, Jan. 26 -- Nobel laureate and economist Abhijit Banerjee, on Monday, January 26, alleged that the growing opposition to India's reservation policies is rooted in the shrinking of good jobs. "Good jobs have not grown," he claimed.

Speaking at the concluding day of the three-day Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF), Banerjee said that fewer jobs have created a "pressure cooker" environment, leading to anxiety and stress.

"People worry about how their children will hold on to middle-class privileges if they cannot get the kind of jobs they have. When opportunities are scarce, people think, 'I did not get this job because it went to 'those people'," he said.

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The conversation then turned to...